By Nasratu Kargbo
Due to the challenges in collecting property tax and high level of non-compliance, the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Parliament, Ibrahim Tawa Conteh has suggested that these taxes be collected through an automated system tied to one's workplace.
Conteh who is also Deputy Speaker made this suggestion during a public hearing on the Auditor General’s Report on the 20th August 2024 whilst looking into issues raised in the report about Freetown City Council (FCC) and Ward C. He spoke of the huge revenue the country is losing by not collecting property tax especially in Ward C which happens to be the Western Area Rural.
He said: “Can we attach some connection for the payment of property tax to offices? That was something I spoke about during the review of this Act, that for these payments we must attach it like we do for NASSIT”. He cited that despite the challenges, the NASSIT system has a level of compliance of 95% because of its link to places of work.
The Chairman explained that most of the people who own property work for government, private entities, NGOs and business owners, stressing that they should find a way to link this to their properties in order to generate revenue.
Conteh said massive constructions are ongoing in the city, especially in Ward C, and that most of those properties are owned by people who can pay the taxes mentioned.
He also asked that they involve mobile companies, instead of printing demand notices and issuing them to taxpayers, stressing that the councils will instead focus on doing follow ups: “Can we automate it through mobile USSD? Because if you have data of the property and contact of the owners, you send a text with every individual’s demand amount for their payment for a particular period, and make a follow up”.
Explaining how such a system can be operated, Conteh noted that reminders will be sent via text messages informing house owners when payment is due and when the deadline elapsed, they can dispatch their teams to the defaulting house owners and if they do not pay, they close their properties.
He therefore stated that their committee will sit with heads of the councils to find ways to incorporate technology to enhance the collection of property tax.
Conteh suggested that the council employs university students to embark on vigorous housing census in each council in order for them to have accurate data so that they can enforce their collection.
The Chief Administrator (CA) of Ward C Festus Kallay in his statement said: “We have to see how we can tie property tax with service delivery, for instance in advanced countries if you do not pay your property rate they will cut off your electricity etc. I can tell you that enforcement is a very serious challenge”
The CA said they could form an understanding or mechanism between EDSA and Local Council wherein one can only purchase their electricity token when they provide documentation that they have paid their city rate.
He said that they spend huge resources sending people out on the field, yet it is difficult to get people to cooperate and pay their dues.
Kallay said that the law does not give the power to close property, but do seizure of movable property.
Speaking on the area of automating the process, he said they had engaged some mobile companies, but was quick to state that they are still faced with challenges regarding how the process will be done; in terms of helping councils with enforcement and dissemination of information.
Responding to the Chairman’s suggestion to employ students to embark on the housing census, the CA said it will require a huge sum of money to get the work done.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (21/08/24)
