Scrapping of crop levy to cost East councils K3.9bn

Scrapping of crop levy to cost East councils K3.9bn
Written by Christopher Miti in Chipata
Saturday, September 26, 2009 6:00:44 PM

THE Local Government Association of Zambia (LGAZ) in Eastern Province has said local authorities in the province would be losing about K3.9 billion annually following the scrapping of crop levy.

In an interview on Thursday, LGAZ provincial chairperson Sinoya Mwale, who is also former Chipata mayor, said the government's move to scrap the levy was like inviting councils to fail to pay workers.

"We had a meeting on 23rd September, that is yesterday. We were trying to look at the scrapping of crop levy. We heard the announcement from the President but upon hearing that, we called for an urgent meeting for the association which comprises all the councils in the province," he said.

Mwale said they discussed a number of issues and looked at the effects that the scrapping of the levy would bring to the councils.

"Just for your own information, we will be losing about K3.9 billion towards the same so the main purpose of meeting was to make sure that we appeal to the head of state through the association headquarters so that may be we can be considered as councils and that at the end of the day it can benefit all," he said.

Mwale said most councils benefited a lot from crop levy because it was a good source of revenue.

He said it could be ideal if the government could entrust the councils with the responsibility of issuing licences now that crop levy was scrapped.

He said Chipata municipal would lose about K539 million, Petauke district council would lose about K600 million, Lundazi K600 million, Chama K300 million and Chadiza would also lose a lot.

Mwale said there was also need to revisit the evaluation role to the properties because the current ones were outdated.

He said if the scrapping of crop levy was effected, then it would be ideal for the government to start paying council workers because councils would not have the capacity.

"If this is going to effected then all what we can say is that may be the government can start paying council workers or they should be put on government pay roll. We don't want to have a situation which was there before where councils were failing to pay their workers but now councils are able to manage their affairs in terms of paying their workers," he said.

Mwale said there were some companies who owed the councils billions of kwacha in unpaid crop levy.

President Banda scrapped crop levy during the opening of parliament recently.