Yeukai Karengezeka Herald Correspondent
Chitungwiza Municipality’s projected 2018 budget of $28 million has been approved by Government, The Herald can reveal.

The budget has slightly increased from the previous $26,7 million to $28,3 million due to additional costs added.

Council’s Management Accountant Mr Godfrey Shumba said they included a Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) loan and Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) loan.

“Indeed our budget has increased because we budgeted for the PSIP loan we receive from Government that is set at $700 000,” he said.

“We also budgeted half a million dollars for road maintenance work, which we expect to receive from Zinara in phases. Otherwise, for the rest of the things we maintained the status quo.”

Mr Shumba said initially the PSIP loan was meant for smart water meters, but they diverted the funds to sewer reticulation.

“Initially this PSIP loan was for smart water meters, but we have got some problems with the sewer reticulation, so we are planning to move those funds to finance sewer reticulation first,” he said.

Mr Shumba highlighted that the municipality has been performing below average in terms of revenue collection and now pin their hopes on the engagement of Wellcash Debt Collectors.

“In terms of revenue collection for some years now it has actually been decreasing that is why we have engaged a debt collector to increase it.

“We are anticipating that the revenue will increase to 60 percent,” he said.

He encouraged residents to honour their bills to enable them to offer quality service delivery.

“Maybe residents were anticipating Government amnesty of scraping off outstanding balances like what they did towards the previous elections. However, we urge them to pay up their bills so that the service delivery does not get compromised too,” said Mr Shumba.

According to statistics from the council, from to 2016 to 2017 revenue collection has been stagnant at 39 percent.

In 2016 they had budgeted an income of $26,6 million, but only collected about $10 3 million. Last year they only realised $10,4 million.

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