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Nelson Mandela Bay residents will be paying a hefty 14.59% percent more for electricity when the new tariff structure takes effect in the new financial year starting in July.
Tabling a budget of R14.9 billion on Monday, Mayoral Committee Member for Budget and Treasury, Malcolm Figg, announced that the increase in property rates had been reduced from 6% to 5%.
Other municipal services, like water, sanitation, and refuse removal, will increase by six percent.
The City adopted an Operating Budget of R13.4 billion and a Capital Budget of R1.5 billion
Figg said this had been the most challenging budget due to factors that include a drop in average collection rate to below 85% and an unemployment rate has escalated countrywide, worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, amongst other factors.
He said, “under the current or prevailing economic climate, this is the best budget that NMB can table to this Council.”
“Yes, it is a budget riddled with challenges, which no one can hide, including the issue of developing our accounting system to be at the best level possible to comply with the requirements of the Municipal Standard Chart of Accounts, MSCOA."
Figg said changes made to the draft budget include the reduction of property rates by 1%, allocating more money to the Kwanobuhle Pump State, increasing the budget for drilling boreholes from R1 million to R160 million, and allocating R25 million to the Intelligence Operations Centre in a bid to curb vandalism of municipal infrastructure.
He said R2.6 billion has also been set aside to finance the Assistance to the Poor Scheme in order for “our communities to benefit over the next three-year period.”
The budget was supported by all parties in the governing coalition, but some parties including the ANC, PA, and AIC, voted against it.
Tariff increases are:
• Water – 6%
• Sanitation – 6%
• Refuse – 6%
• Property Rates – 5%
• Electricity – average of 14,59% (NERSA has increased the cost to metro by 17,8%)
