LCC revenue misses K132m target

LINDA SOKO TEMBO writes  LUSAKA City Council (LCC) has recorded about 52 percent under collection in revenue collection in the first quarter of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. LCC public relations manager George Sichimba said that Council planned to collect K132, 418, 820. 70 during the period under review but only collected K63, 889, 672.61 representing about 52 percent. In a statement, Mr Sichimba said that this meant that the local authority was currently operating at 48 percent capacity. Mr Sichimba said that this had been the lowest in the Council’s revenue collection in the last five years. “The loss of revenue is as a result of complete/partial closure of some local and international business entities due to COVID-19 pandemic, “The most affected revenue streams are property rates, business permit levies, personal levy and waste management fees among others,” he said.  Mr Sichimba said that this scenario had negatively affected the operations of the Council, in that some of the planned projects, programmes and activities could not be implemented. He said that the LCC was therefore appealing to companies and individuals that owed it to settle their bills promptly. The Sun