The Presiding Member of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Patrick Kwame Frimpong has passionately appealed to the 275-member Parliament of Ghana to reject the government’s proposal to collect property rates in the country.
Patrick Kwame Frimpong, who is the assembly member for Krofrom East Electoral area said the law makers need to consider his petition to save the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) from being cash strapped and thus rendered ineffective finance wise.
The Presiding Member made the appeal during a special meeting of KMA at the Prempeh Assembly on Monday.
Explaining his position, Mr Frimpong said the proposal by the government to collect property rates would have negative impact on Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies in the country if allowed to be passed into law.
According to him, all MMDAs have prepared their 2023 budget and fee fixing resolutions in which the property rates were factored. Therefore, the revenue base of MMDAs would be adversely affected if Parliament approved the proposal by the government, as was contained in the 2023 Budget statement presented to the House by the Finance Minister recently for approval.
“Now that government is seeking parliamentary approval to collect property rates, what happens to the MMDAS approved budgets and fee fixing resolutions?” the Presiding Member queried.
Mr Frimpong also questioned government’s failure to consult the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, which by the existing law, are mandated to collect property rates. He described it as a show of disrespect for the MMDAs and called on the parliamentarians to intervene to avoid any negative impact on MMDAs by rejecting the new approach to property rates collection by the government.
He referred to section 144 of the Local Governance Act 2016 (Act 936), which states that “A District Assembly shall be the only authority to Levy rates for a District, despite any customary law to the contrary,” and Section 161, sub-section 3(c) of Act 936, which also states in part
that: “A rate collector shall pay the amounts collected to the District Assembly concerned,” to buttress his position stressing that the existing law for the collection of the property rates is explicit and transparent enough to warrant any unnecessary alteration.
When the new proposal is approved for implementation, 70% of the property rates would be given to MMDAs and the rest of 30% would go to Central government, but the KMA Presiding Member said the various Assemblies especially the KMA is already facing serious financial challenges to execute its programmes and that approval of the proposal has the tendency to
worsen the already precarious situation, hence the petition for the MPs to kick against the new approach by the government to collect property rates.
In solidarity with the Presiding Member, majority of the Assembly members, who indicated they are not convinced about the new approach to property rates collection supported the position of their leader, saying the move is against the current Act of Parliament.
They also expressed surprise why the Finance Minister and the government overlooked the provisions of the local government structures and come out with such a proposal in the 2023 Budget statement without the necessary consultations with major stakeholders.
