Farms to pay municipal rates
Farms to pay municipal rates

Farms to pay municipal rates

Following the City of Windhoek's announcement that rates and taxes on farms in the City's district will be due from 1 August, the NAU says no feedback was given by the council on the matter.
Ellanie Smit
Following the announcement by the City of Windhoek that farmers within Windhoek's extended borders will have to pay municipal rates, the Namibian Agricultural Union (NAU) says there has been no feedback yet to evaluate how fair this will be.

The Windhoek municipality recently announced that it will charge municipal tariffs for the first time from 1 August within the City's extended boundaries.

Only rates on property value and improvements, as well as tariffs for waste water management, will be charged.

In a notice, the municipality specifically referred to neighbourhoods such as Finkenstein, Sungate, Regenstein, Omeya, Herboth's Blick and Brakwater.

The NAU says the Local Authorities Act 23 of 1992 defines rateable property as any immovable property situated within the local authority area.

According to the Act all the farms and private housing developments around Windhoek are rateable property.

The union says that the Act makes provision that the municipality can levy fees on any rateable property for the advantage of the local authority fund.

However, it said there is no clear link in the Act between rates payable and service delivery.

“We are aware that the municipality visited properties and farms outside Windhoek during the past few years with the aim to do valuations on which rates can be levied. Nobody in this new target market of the municipality, however, has received any feedback or invoices yet, to be able to evaluate whether the valuations and the rates are fair.”

The union said it is presumed that the municipality will only levy the land and improvements thereon and not charge for water, electricity, sewerage and refuse removal services.

It said as soon as the valuations and levies are known, they can be investigated further and measured against the procedures as prescribed in the Act as well as on the principle of fairness.

The NAU added the municipality will phase the rates in as soon as the valuations are completed and the union is busy attending to this matter.

The municipality said in its notice that the tariffs were put into operation after it was announced and approved by the city council in July.

“The collection of municipal tariffs will ensure a sustainable supply of services within the City and the collection of these will benefit City residents and also ensure that all residents within the new City limits are made equal if they provide for the provision of municipal services,” the notice said.

Windhoek's extensive boundaries make it the third largest city in the world after Tianjin and Istanbul and it extends for over 5 133.4 km². With the expansion of the City's borders in 2012, an additional 325 properties are included - most of them farms.

ELLANIE SMIT

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Namibian Sun 2024-03-28

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