If there is one revenue source that could radically alter the fortunes of district assemblies, especially in the built areas of our urban cities, then it is property rates. Unfortunately, government after governments have found it almost impossible to crack this nut resulting in significant revenue loses at the district/local level.
The last major intervention by the current government to address this challenge was a botched attempt to centralize property rate payments by integrating local property rate payments with the database of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
A lot of well-meaning stakeholders kicked against this so-called novel attempt to centralise property rate payments as it went against international practice and also undermined the capacity of the local authorities in their revenue generation mandate.
I believe the digitization agenda of the Vice President could be deployed to ramp up property rate collections, especially in-built areas where the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG)’s smart pre-paid meters have been deployed. Here is my conception of how digitization could address this issue.
- The GPS co-ordinates of boundaries of all Metropolitan, Municipals, Districts Assemblies (MMDAs) in ECG smart pre-paid meters areas should be captured.
- The MMDAs should update or capture GPS co-ordinates of physical structures in their locality, if not already done under the Ghana Post GPS.
- ECG’s pre-paid meters at the various premises should also capture GPS co-ordinates of the premises
- The GPS co-ordinates of the physical structures with a particular MMDA should be integrated with GPS co-ordinates of ECG smart pre-paid meters system, which is already tied to the GhanaCard.
- At the local or national level, a bye law or legislation could be passed to the effect that, within a particular period in a year, where a property owner has not paid his property rate, that property will be disabled from accessing or buying electricity (or any other public utility).
- There surely will be unfairness, even injustice, at the pilot phase of such a policy as on only individuals on ECG smart pre-paid meters will be affected. I believe the bye laws and legislation could address this challenge.
The above proposal would only be possible if the GPS systems ECG, National Identification Authority (NIA) and the Ghana Post can “talk” to each other or could be integrate into some uniform platform. What must be noted is that people are generally aversed to online payments unless they accrue some benefit or are denied a service for the non-payment. This is one of the reasons that led to the failure of the integration with the GRA systems with that of the MMDAs.
Those not paying their property rate on the GRA platform suffered no detriment. However, if property owners could be denied access to electricity due to non-payment of property rates, they will rush pay to avoid the unmitigated consequences of power loss.
If this proposal is fine-tuned by IT specialists, it could revolutionalise property rates payments in the country and push policy makers to mobilize the needed resources for ECG to significantly upscale the deployment of smart pre-paid meters.
It is trite knowledge that it is only a massive deployment of prepaid meters that could considerably reduce ECG’s commercial loses and save ECG from the imminent bankruptcy recently predicted by the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC).
By Ing. Akwasi B. Asamoah Dept. of Feeder Roads, Head Office, Accra
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.
