New fee for burying the dead
ADDED to the amount paid to have their deceased relatives interred, individuals must now pay a maintenance fee to the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), Chairman of the Finance Committee Oscar Clarke announced on Friday.
He was at the time presenting the 2017 budget estimates to the City Council, where he drew attention to the number of new fees that will have to be implemented to help the municipality with its expenses for the year.
Regarding the cemeteries, Clarke said, “These facilities are vital to our socio-cultural aspects, but more particularly, our public health. For generations, council has been subsidising the operational costs of this facility, because citizens only pay a meagre sum to inter their loved ones; the rest is left to the council.
“However, this year, 2017, council has instituted a maintenance fee to assist with the general good upkeep of the cemeteries managed by the municipality. As a result, in addition to the fee for the space, individuals must now pay a maintenance charge to the Georgetown City Council,” Clarke continued.
Asked how much the new fee will be, Clarke told this newspaper on Saturday that this is yet to be decided.
Meanwhile, to further rake in revenue, the M&CC has also considered a 10 percent increase across the board on property rates.
“It should be noted that there was no increase in the percentage assessment of property rates since 1998. This is against the background that there are a number of unassessed properties both in terms of construction, expansion and change of use,” observed Clarke.
Because Council is of the view that more revenue can be collected from municipal markets, the entire revenue-collection system for the markets will be computerised to capture all vendors and stallholders who are required to pay fees. In fact, as of this month, Council has decided to implement new fees which will affect salons, barber shops, and other forms of cosmetology.
The municipality has also decided to implement a commercial waste fee to all businesses within the first quarter of the year that is expected to generate approximately $53M for the year.
“Commercial waste-generation has become burdensome to our municipality, since we have seen a rapid increase of such wastes from the business community. The municipality is stretched very thin to remove some 38 tons of commercial waste daily at a cost of $1M per week,” stated Clarke.
Revenue will also be garnered from the controversial parking meter system that was implemented recently, from a hike in container fees to the council, and from efforts to have all court fines paid over to the M&CC as opposed to the Consolidated Fund, where they are being remitted currently.
Clarke reminded that Georgetown comprises an area of 22 square kilometres, or 15 square miles, with a population estimated at 200,000 people and another 50,000 who visit the city for business and other reasons.
It continues to be a city of 60 wards programmed into 15 constituencies, an estimated 40,000 properties on record, excluding squatter settlements and Sophia.
The City Council maintains 160 miles of roads, 800 miles of concrete and earthen drains, 12 outfall channels and sluices; all parapets, reserves and thoroughfares; bridges, footpaths and sidewalks; municipal markets and parks, maternal and child welfare day care services, the abattoir, among many other municipal services, he pointed out.
