Staff Reporter
The cash-strapped Mangaung Metro has announced that after a long legal battle the municipality has been granted control of natural resources of the Free State with the exception of mineral rights.
As a result, new municipal taxes will be added to the gambit of local revenue that the metro is entitled to collect and will come into force on July 1, 2021 along with the new budget.
From that date, the metro will introduce revenue taxes on all private boreholes, including those on small holdings, but excluding registered farms in excess of 35 hectares in size.
Each borehole, whether in use or not, will be required to pay R1 000 per annum licence fee.
Also introduced at the same time is a sunshine tax applicable to all homes that currently do not pay rates and taxes and will mainly affect informal housing and RDP homes.
The rate applicable from July 1, 2021 is R100 per home per month.
This means that backyard dwellings will be charged at the same rate as the main property.
An official from the metro’s department of environment stated: “Air and sunshine are God-given rights. The metro has been given control of all non-mineral resources within the metropolitan area and is instituting these new taxes to ensure that all residents pay their fair share of the cost of running the metro.
“Without this income source it would not be possible to pay the salaries of metro workers who will be administering these new taxes.
“As it is, at the level currently charged, income from this source will not be sufficient to cover the cost of salaries for the administrators of the tax.”
The official said in the same way people have taken to buying bottled water at a far higher cost than the bulk supply cost for water, residents will now have to pay the new taxes.
The cost per cubic metre for water from the metro is only R27 compared to bottled water at R20 000 per cubic metre when bought in bottles at R10 per 500ml bottle.
“The metro can see that there is a wide margin to increase the price of tap water when compared to the cost of bottled water,” said the official.
The official went on to deny that the metro was considering charging for the use of clean air in the city saying it was difficult to quantify.
It is however rumoured the municipality’s environmental department is considering a levy on air consumption based on the number of people and animals residing on any one property.
