BCM accused of levying ‘useless’ taxes to bolster coffers

Buffalo City Metro is billing its residents for “useless” taxes which seemingly have no purpose other than to bolster the municipality's coffers.

This is the view of several DA ward councillors in regard to items such as a dog tax and a fire levy.

 An East London commercial property owner recently posted on Facebook that she had been billed for dog tax and when she inquired at the municipality, she was sent from pillar to post.

The dog tax was R131, including VAT, per dog.

The fire levy, which is R64 a month, has for years drawn criticism from ratepayers.

When DispatchLIVE contacted BCM acting municipal spokesperson Bathandwa Diamond about the dog tax, she said the “customer can provide her account number and cell number to @Debbie Crous so that she can be assisted”.

“However, all account related queries need to be directed to @billing queries or 086-111-3017.”

Diamond explained the levy and dog tax.

“The fire levy is charged on all properties to cover the fees in the event of a fire, where the fire department is dispatched. This is payable by all customers. A dog tax is the fee payable for the licence that is required for each dog on a property,” Diamond said.

According to DA ward 29 councillor André Swart, the fire levy had been introduced between 1993 and 1994 when BCM  experienced a series of veld fires. It was supposed to be for that period only to cover the cost of putting out the fires.

“Then the fire tax just remained there. And every year they've increased it. I asked them about it when I was still the ratepayers association chair. I submitted a public access to information application in 2012 requesting they explain how this levy was made up, why it was made and for how long it was supposed to be in operation. But the municipality never responded.”

Swart said the municipality also never responded to his requests which followed that application.  

“The then CFO did not even respond. I cannot see the necessity of a fire tax. As for the dog tax, what does a dog do? Why must a tax be paid on it? The thing is, they levy a tax on everybody whether a person has a dog or not. I cannot understand the necessity.

“Look at the quality of the roads; the grass in public spaces is never cut, the rubbish is never cleaned. Why are we even paying rates if the municipality does not render the services that they are supposed to render?”

DA councillor Sue Bentley said she would investigate the dissatisfied customer claims when recess ended next week.  

“The resident should not pay that tax until after we have investigated this,” Bentley said.

DispatchLIVE