City services tariffs expected to increase as draft proposed

IT IS unlikely ethekwini Municipality will reduce the proposed new tariffs after the draft budget consultation with the public closed this week.

The city’s chief financial officer Krish Kumar is adamant the city will pass the proposed tariffs, saying it was imperative the city raise its revenue base to provide services.

The draft budget includes a 6.84% hike for electricity. The water tariff increase is proposed at 15% for domestic and 15.5% for business. Refuse removal tariff increase is proposed at 9.9% while sanitation at 9.9% and rates 6.9%. Kumar said while the public consultation process afforded the municipality a platform to interact with the consumers about how the city plans to spend the budget, there was little that could be done to avoid rates increases.

He said the current economic climate, coupled with unfavourable external financial pressures on services, and increases in bulk charges above consumer price index, had put significant strain on costs of municipal services.

He said the increase in inflation, the high unemployment rates, and the 1% increase in the VAT rate and constant petrol price increases, also contributed to the hike in rates.

Kumar said while there had been a public outcry regarding the proposed tariffs, the benchmarking exercise by National Treasury, based on a basket of goods, reflect that of all the main metros, ethekwini has the lowest monthly bills for middle income households.