Blantyre City forecasts 100% revenue collection
Blantyre City Council (BCC) has forecasted a 100 percent increase on property revenue collection after the completion of Quinquennial Valuation Roll (QVR), a project aimed at property evaluation in the city.
The BCC project, which rolled out in July 2019 and was subcontracted to Malawi Property Investment Company (Mpico), The Malawi Polytechnic and Mashanduka Real Estates Consultants, has so far reached 75 percent of the target.
QVR chairperson Dennis Chinseu, who is also BCC director of commerce, industry and trade, told journalists at civic offices in Blantyre on Wednesday that currently, the council collects about K4 billion from 36 000 properties were recorded in the last QVR that took place in 2005.
He said the council is expected to start collecting between K8 billion and K9 billion as the BCC survey indicates that there are 277 000 properties in the commercial city.
Said Chinseu: “More gain in revenue will be made from the properties that are currently not part of the billing register.
“As only 13 percent of the properties are currently billed, the additional 87 percent of the properties will make a huge difference to what is being collected now.”
He disclosed that the project is encountering some challenges in the evaluation exercise as some residents deny the evaluation team access to measure the property.
BCC spokesperson Anthony Kasunda clarified that the law gives the council mandate to inspect all properties built on land acquired from Malawi Housing Corporation, BCC, Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development and even from traditional settlers in the city.
