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Residents of Kouga are in for a steep electricity increase of 14.59% from July after the Council adopted a draft "cash-backed" budget for the 2021/2022 financial year.
The budget amounts to just over R1 billion, of which just over R1 074 million is for the operating budget and R61 million is for the capital budget.
"The operating budget will be funded from various sources, the major contributors being property rates (22.65%), bulk electricity (34.61%), sanitation (6.07%) and refuse (5.77%)," said mayor, Horatio Hendricks.
He said every effort was made to ensure that the budget, unanimously adopted on Tuesday, "was pro-poor and fully-funded."
"The operating budget will be funded from various sources, the major contributors being property rates (22.65%), bulk electricity (34.61%), sanitation (6.07%) and refuse (5.77%)," the mayor said.
He said the total operating expenses for the 2021/2022 financial year amounts to just over R1 074 million, with the major operating expenditure items being employee-related costs at over R378 million (35.24%) and bulk electricity purchase at over R290 million (26.99%).
From 1 July the following increases are applicable:
Property rates: 5.25%
Water: 7.1%
Sanitation: 6.5%
Refuse: 6.5%
Electricity: 14.59%
Environmental Management Fee: 0%
Hendricks said the municipality had kept tariff increases as low as is possible.
"In some instances, especially when it comes to electricity, this proved to be a challenge, with Eskom increasing its bulk tariff to municipalities," he said.
