Council owed $120k

OVALAU ratepayers including some who live in Suva and abroad, owe the Levuka Town Council $120,000, says Local Government Minister Premila Kumar.

“Just like any other municipality, the town council looks into who the ratepayers are and how much rates they owe and we found out the ratepayers in Levuka are living in Suva or abroad, but they owe rates to the Levuka Town Council,” she said.

“The total rates invoiced by the Levuka Town Council in 2021 stands at $166,255 and so far, a sum of $134,571 was collected and that is about $120,00 in rate arrears.

“The revenue base is small, and unlike other municipalities — for example Suva and Lautoka — Levuka Town Council doesn’t even have a car park or municipal markets to generate revenue.”

Ms Kumar hinted at the possibility of a hike in garbage collection fees.

“The ratepayers of Levuka pay only $38 per year for garbage collection which simply means around 37 cents per pickup.

“Now what can you buy for 37 cents?

“The town council has to pay wages, including the vehicle and its maintenance. So obviously this amount is very small and isn’t sustainable.

“But on the other hand, the businesses that operate in Levuka, they pay $1000 per year for garbage collection that is around $20 a week.

“If we compare that with SCC (Suva City Council), the business houses pay less than $30 and these are the business houses who pay for this garbage collection in Suva.

“We provide daily collection which means six days a week, whereas for residential ratepayers base, they also pay the same amount, but they get only three days of collection.

“I’m just wondering what the SCC is doing. They need to fix this rate with the help of the special administrators.

“If we look at the collection, the total collection of garbage fee is around $20,000 but what we are able to collect is around $10,000 but the cost of operation is around $69,000.

“This is only dealing with the garbage so you can see that we have a lot to do in this area.”