THE GENERAL Assembly of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has called on the government to restore the collection of property rates back to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
The call is contained in a resolution adopted by the Assembly last Friday during the 2nd Ordinary meeting of the 4th session of the 8th Assembly following a report of the Finance and Administration and Revenue Sub-committees of the Assembly.
The KMA saw the GHc114,000 released to the KMA by the government as at July 27, 2023 as meagre in the face of the GHc3,460,361.16 the KMA collected in property rates as at December 2022.
The government sought the approval of Parliament last year to collect property rates when the Finance Minister presented the 2023 Budget statement to Parliament.
It proposed that that 70 percent of the property rates collected would go to MMDAs and the remaining 30% to Central government.
The KMA has consequently received GHc114,000 last week but the General Assembly deems the GHc114,000 woefully inadequate hence the call for the restoration of the collection by the Assemblies.
According to the resolution, the continued collection of property rates by the government, will go to impoverish the Assemblies.
The Presiding Member of KMA, Hon. Patrick Kwame Frimpong who is also the Assembly member for Krofrom East Electoral Area, said the collection of property rates by the government is an usurpation of the mandate by MMDAs especially when the government had not consulted the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and major stakeholders.
According to him, the move is in contravention to section 144 of the Local Governance Act 2016 (Act 936), which states that “A District Assembly shall be the only authority to Levy rates for a District, despite any customary law to the contrary,” and Section 161, sub-section 3(c) of Act 936, which also states in part
that: “A rate collector shall pay the amounts collected to the District Assembly concerned.”
BY Kow Richardson
Kumasi
