City of Mutare says its innovations to increase revenue inflows are paying off significant dividends, after holding a grand draw for an inaugural rates promotions aimed at improving revenue collection.
Buoyed by the uptake of the rates promotion, ‘Maintain up to date Account Promotion’ which ran from April last year, officials say they are extending it because of the significant improvement of revenue collection.
The inaugural promotion saw two lucky winners win a residential each, others were awarded branded materials as consolation prizes, but the business community forfeited its share of stands as entries had not cleared accounts on time.
Munipalicty management is also urging residents ‘to pay their bills in the comfort of their homes after launching a pilot door to door revenue which kicked off on 29 June 2020, initially covering Chikanga, ZIMTA and Hobhouse.
City officials have appealed to residents and ratepayers to update their details, including the contact person onsite, for the exercise to roll out effectively at the convenience of ratepayers.
“Notice is hereby given that the City of Mutare is bringing convenience to its residents and customers through a door to door revenue collection exercise.
“Our residents and customers are encouraged to advantage of the convenience to pay their bills from the comfort of their homes.
“Council is updating its database to ensure that residents receive their bills and other communications electronically either via email or text messages,” read part of the Public Notice.
Management says all these strategies were devised to address apathy in bills payment, a situation which was caused by two populist directives by government to slash council rates in 2013 and 2015.
Mutare Mayor, Councilor Blessing Tandi said the municipality, as a cost recovery entity, relies on revenue collected from residents and ratepayers, hence improvisation of strategies to increase collections.
Thandi said these promotions seek to reverse negative legacy impacts of the 2013 and 2015 bill slashes which adversely impacted council service delivery capacity, and inculcated bill payment apathy among residents and stakeholders.
“A local authority is a cost recovery driven entity hence if we don’t have any income from our residents then we won’t be able to offer the services that we want.
“The promotion achieved the desired results particularly being the resuscitation of a paying culture among our residents and stakeholders in honoring their council bills.
“With those promotions that happened in 2013 and 2015 as a local authority we were thrown into the bitter end of resources, whereby we couldn’t offer the services that we should ordinarily be able to offer,” said Tandi.
Finance Director, Blessing Chafesuka said the promotion ignited residents and ratepayers to pay council rates with significant increase in monthly payments since the start of the promotion recorded since its launch.
He said at its launch council rewarded numerous ratepayers but changed strategy when the first phase became unsustainable management introduced monthly draws, culminating in the grand draw.
“Our collections were averaging between thirty to thirty five percent (30-35%) of billing and that was no sustainable in terms of providing services. So when this proposal was put before council it was approved.
“As management we then sat down and made recommendations to council to come up with strategies to collect revenue and this promotion is one such example strategies that we used.
“The promotion started in April of 2019, initially we were giving prizes to everyone who paid above thirty dollars, but it then became unsustainable around June because of continuous price escalations.
“We changed and started conducting monthly draws at our collection centres, where those who cleared their accounts were eligible to win prizes. A lot of residents won, about 7860 people won different types of prizes.
“It improved our revenue collection significantly, for 2019 our collection improved from the average of thirty to thirty five and went up to around sixty percent on average, of the monthly billing,” he said.
Chafesuka said conversion of the USD to the local currency placed extra burden on the city with its creditors, forcing the municipality to innovate and increase its revenue collection.
He said although there has been an improvement in revenue collection, the municipality is still hard pressed as most of its suppliers are now demanding payment in foreign currency.
“The conversion of the US dollars into bond notes last year compounded pressure from creditors because everyone wanted their payments in February last year (in USD).
“Even though revenue increased still sixty percent of billing is not enough for efficient service delivery but at least it made a difference and we could do quite a lot. If we get hundred percent payment of billing, I think we can change the face of the city.
“We appreciate what is happening within the economy in terms of prize escalations arising from unstable currency, so the recovery that we registered was also affected by inflation,” he said.
Last week the grand draw of the ‘Maintain up to date Account Promotion’ was held and two lucky winners Gwinyai Nyamwanza of Chikanga phase two and Junior Mushonga from Maonde in Sakubva won residential stands each, others walked away with instant food hampers as well as branded clothing.
The event was sponsored by local companies Mega Market, Willowton, Mutare Bottling Company (Coca Cola) among other operating under the Manicaland chapter of the Confederations of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI).
