With municipalities owed more than R138 billion by government departments, businesses and households – local governments are looking to more drastic collection measures to help address the shortfall.<\/p>\n
This was the general consensus of the recent three-day Local Government Week programme, which focused on the biggest threats facing local municipalities across the country right now.<\/p>\n
“The general view was that the culture of non-payment must be eradicated to ensure viability of municipalities, especially non-payment by households that are able to pay,” parliament said in a\u00a0statement,<\/a><\/strong> following the conclusion of the week\u00a0on Friday (11 May).<\/p>\n “Enforcement of a National Treasury directive instructing provincial and national departments to pay their debt was highlighted as critical to addressing the debt crisis.”<\/p>\n Another\u00a0proposal being being considered is an amendment of current tax laws to allow for debts to be collected from tax refunds.<\/p>\n Specifically, parliament said that this would include\u00a0amending the Tax Administration Act to allow deductions of municipal debts before refunds are made<\/strong> by the South African Revenue Service.<\/p>\n Other changes<\/strong><\/p>\n While the majority of the week focused on ways that municipalities could address the shortfall. a number of other changes were proposed during the week.<\/p>\n These include:<\/p>\n\n
\n