The Members of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) on Friday,28th July,2023 unanimously passed a resolution to resume the collection of Property Rates which was recently given to Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

The resolution according to the Assembly has been necessitated as a result of poor handling of Property rates collection by Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

The Resolution was made during the 2nd Ordinary Meeting of the 4th session of the 8th Assembly of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) held at Prempeh Assembly Hall,Kumasi.

Hon.Patrick Kwame Frimpong,the Presiding Member(PM) of KMA said their decision would soon be communicated to Government and GRA.

The Presiding Member of KMA who doubles as Assembly member for Krofrom East Electoral area revealed that Property rates collection performance by the Assembly as at June, 2022 stood at Ghc 1,170.330.00 and as at December,2022 was Ghc 3,065,519.07..

He said the arrears as at June same year was Ghc 208,027.62 and Ghc 394,842.09 as at December,2022.

The total property rates collected or received plus arrears as at June,2022 stood at Ghc 1,378,357.62 .

The total property rates received plus arrears as at December,2022 was 3,450,361.15 respectively.
The PM said unfortunately,since GRA was given the mandate for the collection of the Property rates the Assembly had only received Ghc114,000 from GRA.
The amount,he disclosed hits the Accounts of KMA on Thursday,27th July,2023.

Hon.Patrick Kwame Frimpong,KMA PM

Speaking to The New Trust Newspaper after the meeting,Hon Frimpong said the members have taken a firm decision about the matter which is having serious negative impact on the running of the Assembly.

“We expect the Government to urgently revert the law to allow Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to collect the Property rates because GRA has failed woefully in the collection.

Our information indicates that,GRA after the mandate was given to them for property rates collection by the government has outsourced the function to a private Company to do the collection.

Even though,the earlier cautioned to the Government to Reconsider not amending the Law to permit Assemblies to continue the collection of the Property rates was ignored and the law was amended to allow Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to begin the collection of the Property rates.

But now that it is clear per available records that GRA has failed woefully in collecting the Property rates after several months now the best thing for GRA to do is humbly withdraw from the collection and allow MMDAS to continue the collection”.

The KMA PM who is in his Fourth term(16 years) in the Assembly explained that the current law as approved by Parliament supposed to remit 30% of the rate collected to the Assemblies whiles remaining 70% goes to the GRA and the Central government.

It is sad to note that almost all MMDAs have been denied of expected revenue as a result of the failure of GRA to collect the Property rates.

It is against the backdrop,we (members of KMA)within Greater Kumasi have resolved to resume collection of Property rates as soon as possible.

He said as for Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) we’re ready to pay the Central government’s share per the new arrangements if that is what the Central Government wants to help ensure that our Assemblies’ are not shut down due to lack of funds to run.

It’s Worthy to note that section 143 of the Local Governance Act 2016(Act 936) supports our position.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Act reads “District Assembly shall be the only authority to Levy rates for a District despite any customary law to the contrary.

Further more, section 161, subsection 3(c) of Act 936 also stated in part that “A rate collector shall pay the amounts collected to the District Assembly Concerned” and this shows transparency in the above sections of the Act.

“We can state unequivocally that most Assembly Members are still not convinced and comfortable with the new approach because it is against the Local Governance Act coupled with the failure of GRA to prove them wrong since they were given the mandate for the collection of the rates”.

Adding that “we also wish to bring to the attention of the general public and all stakeholders that MMDAs including KMA were not consulted or engaged on the new approach before and after the new approach was presented by the Minister of Finance,Hon Ken Ofori-Atta to Parliament”,he added.

Source:A news Desk Report