The General Assembly of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has, by resolution, called on the government to consider restoring the responsibility of collecting property rates back to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
The resolution was passed last Friday during the 2nd Ordinary Meeting of the 4th Session of the 8th Assembly.
The position of the General Assembly was premised on the report of the Finance and Administration and Revenue Sub-Committees of the Assembly.
The KMA had collected GH¢3,460,361.16 in property rates as at December 2022, as against GH¢114,000 released to it by the government as at July 27, 2023.
Last year, the government, per the 2023 Budget Statement presented to Parliament by the Finance Minister, sought approval to collect property rates amid protests by a section of MMDAs.
Seventy percent of the property rates collected would go to MMDAs, and the 30% would go to Central Government.
The KMA, consequently, received GH¢114,000 last week, since the government took over the collection of property rates, but the General Assembly deems the amount woefully inadequate, hence, the call for the restoration of the collection by the assemblies.
According to the resolution, the continued collection of property rates by the government would go to impoverish the assemblies.
The KMA said the government would have to consider the recommendation to save the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) from being cash-strapped and not render them ineffective finance wise.
The Presiding Member of the KMA, Patrick Kwame Frimpong, who is also the Assembly Member for Krofrom East Electoral Area, said the collection of property rates by the government without consultations with the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and major stakeholders, was already having a negative impact on the finances of the assemblies in the country.
According to him, the move was in contravention to Section 144 of the Local Governance Act 2016 (Act 936), which states: “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: “A rate collector shall pay the amounts collected to the District Assembly concerned.”
