Payment plan to increase revenue collection at Linden Municipality 

DPI, Guyana, Sunday, April 15, 2018

The Linden Mayor and the Town Council are working on developing a payment plan to address the challenges of acquiring revenues to sustain the municipality and improve the quality of services to the citizenry of Linden, Region Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice).

According to newly elected Deputy-Mayor, Wainwright Bethune, the municipality is currently examining all sources of revenue collection; and while it is not considering an increase to rates and taxes, methods of making the process more efficient are being examined.

“We are going to work with the residents, talk with them and develop payment formulas in which they can come in and both parties can be comfortable with the way it is being done. The municipality is receiving its revenue while it’s not too much of a strain on the residents,” Bethune told the Department of Public Information (DPI) in a recent interview.

Mayor Waneka Arrindell explained that the council will also be embarking on a massive sensitisation campaign in a bid to recover much-needed revenues. She noted that persons must understand that “in order for a municipality to be effective, it has to collect revenues.”

The Mayor explained, “The revenues we collect, it’s going to be used to have your garbage picked up, patch your roads and stuff like that and that is why we are embarking, this year, on the education of the population to ensure persons understand what is happening at the level of the council.”

The ultimate goal, Mayor Arrindell said, is to ensure that the residents have a better understanding of the council’s functions, and the importance of paying their rates and taxes they owed.

Municipalities receive an annual subvention from the Ministry of Communities, in accordance with budgetary allocations approved by parliament. and meant to execute developmental works. However, the collection of rates and taxes are the main source of revenue for these councils.

These revenues are used to improve the living standards of citizens including the cleaning of drains and parapets, waste disposal, and the maintenance of roads, bridges and culverts within the respective communities.

 

By: Synieka Thorne