The Local Government Ministry collected close to twenty-nine million dollars in rates from thirteen municipal councils last year.
Permanent Secretary, Joshua Wycliffe says this is an improvement compared to previous years.
Wycliffe says the new structures implemented within the Municipal Councils have led to an improvement in rate collections.
“We’ve had shared services in terms of how collection operates. There is a sharper focus and exclusive resources put in place to collect. These procedures have helped a lot. So now the Municipal Councils have targets and that is part of their KPI. So there are able to target dollar value collections.”
Wycliffe says this is an indication that Fijians are making their payments when required.
He told the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee this morning that the Ministry will continue to work with the Municipal Councils to further improve rate collections.
