The Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) recorded a 126 per cent property rate collection over the estimated GHC10.8 million, for 2017. Mr Felix Mensah Nii Anang-La, Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive said his outfit collected GHC13,6 million over the estimated amount for the 2017 fiscal year.
Mr Anang-La disclosed this in a sessional address during the TMA’s First Ordinary Meeting of the Third Session of the Seventh Assembly. He stated that while the property rate’s year-on-year collection showed a huge potential, more energy must be channeled into mobilizing revenue from licenses.
He added that “the share of fees and fines for our budget performance still needs to be boosted to reach its maximum performance”. The MCE indicated that TMA's Internally Generated Funds (IGF) continued to dominate the Assembly’s revenue structure as its overall output in 2017 was GHC28.1 million representing 95 per cent of the budgeted GHC 29.7 million for the period.
He stated that Government of Ghana (GOG), Grants and other transfers added a little over 19 million cedis to the actual revenue collected. The TMA was able to collect a little over 47 million cedis out of the projected figure GHC 64.8 million for the 2017 fiscal year while it incurred an expenditure of 67 per cent of the estimated figure.
“Our revenue and expenditure were within the approved budget, besides, the prudent management of scarce resources under my able leadership yielded positive results”, he said. He noted that his outfit was developing more effective ways of mobilizing revenue to meet the increasing demand for services in the Metropolis as it would be impossible to develop the area to modern standards without strong and consistent revenue flows.
Mr Anang-La announced that to increase its IGF this year, the TMA would organize town hall meetings at all the electoral areas on its Public Financial Management. He added that there would be an introduction of a special task-force to collect building permit fees from developers who had put up structures without the requisite permits.
The MCE therefore appealed to Assembly Members to educate and sensitize their electorates on the exercise and the need to obtain development permit before putting up structures.