Municipal Councils are calling on the Ministry of Local Government to be stricter on rate payers who failed to pay their rates.
The issue was discussed today at the last day of Local Government Forum in Suva.
Local Government Permanent Secretary Samuela Namosimalua says the responsibility of collecting rates lies with the Municipal Councils.
Namosimalua says they will ensure that rate payers do pay their arrears.
“So we have been discussing with the Ministry of Lands and they have assured us to re-organize the systems and processes and what has been discussed today to go further and that and what we are looking at now is the possibility of a MOU.”
Local Government Minister Parveen Kumar Bala has asked all Municipal Council heads to provide the Ministry arrears from the last five years.
