Latest update November 5th, 2024 1:00 AM
Tax collection disappointing – says Town Council Treasurer
Less than half of the collectable rates and taxes were collected by the New Amsterdam Mayor and Town Council (M&TC) for last year. This was revealed by the town Treasurer, Ms Sharon Anderson.
The Town Council collects revenues from several entities, among them the New Amsterdam Market and Abattoir. There are cemetery fees, processing fees, issuing of health certificates and rates and taxes.
The council also collects a bit, now and again, from renting the Town Hall and some other municipal facilities.
Ms Anderson stated that the council would collect most of its revenues from taxes and the least from the abattoir.
She is not pleased with members of the public and officials who say that they do not know what the council is doing with the rates and taxes. She said that the taxes are just meager sums of monies that are only paid by some citizens of the town.
It was revealed that a new tax rate was supposed to have come out, but because this has not yet materialised, there are no significant amounts of taxes collected by the council.
The official also stated that one major hindrance to collection of reasonable amounts of rates and taxes is the low valuation of properties and lands. For example, if a property is valued at $800, that homeowner would pay only $3,120 in taxes annually.
She stated that many properties around the town have very small values attached to them. Tax is calculated at 390 per cent, a rise from 325 per cent in 2006. The Treasurer also said that tax collections are dropping significantly every year.
She cited empty lots around the town, especially in the Tucber area, where the council cannot locate the owners to collect taxes.
Not much has worked to get citizens to pay rates and taxes. Sending out demand notices, lawyers’ letters and offering persons payment plans have not worked at all. “We have persons who owe the municipality since the 90’s”, she said.
The Treasurer was responding to accusations by Region Six officials who claim mismanagement of taxpayers’ funds. “The only thing the council is guilty of is not letting the public know what is going on,” she said.
Responding to allegations of financial mismanagement, the Treasurer showed Kaieteur News the past receipts and bank statements of collections of the $10M Government subventions.
Anderson said that even though the last State audit of the town was done in 1996 (a period when she was not working there), financial statements were submitted from 1997- 2009 to the Ministry of Local Government. If the statements were found questionable the Ministry would have sent auditors to check the council’s books, she said.
(Leon Suseran)
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