Collection of property rates will be given back to MMDAs – Mahama

The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has said his next government will terminate the collection of property rates contract with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

According to him, the collection will be given back to the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) because neither GRA nor the central government have taken the right decision.

“It was the mandate of the assemblies to collect the property rates and that will increase their internally generated funds; unfortunately, this government has taken it from the assemblies and the claim they made is that the property rates have been collected inefficiently and they want to inject efficiency into the collection.”

Mahama said this in Ho on Friday, 12 January during a town hall meeting as part of his two-day tour of the Volta region.

The former president, who wants to be president again, claimed there’s no accuracy in the collection of the rates; hence, his next government will give the mandate to MMDAs.

“I think that we can help the assemblies collect the property rates efficiently. So when we come, we’ll decentralise the collection of property rates again, and we’ll help the assemblies collect it more efficiently so that they can make more money to supplement the district assembly common fund that they’ve been getting.”

He believes that, if this is done, MMDAs can use the funds for development and not always depend on the central government for funding for development.

“The money should remain in the districts so that the districts can use it for their developmental programmes; the district doesn’t always have to wait for the government to come and do roads for them,” the head said.

GRA takes over the collection of property rates

In 2022, the Ministry of Finance, through Section 4 of the Ghana Revenue Authority Act, 2009 (Act 791) introduced a Property Rate Reform Project as part of efforts to increase the collection of property rates in the country.

The objective was to develop a unified common platform capable of billing, collecting, and reporting property rates nationwide.

The GRA was given the mandate in January 2023 to take over the collection of rates from Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

During the presentation of the 2024 budget, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta disclosed that there has been a significant increase in billable properties in the country since GRA took over.

“The number of billable properties has seen a substantial increase, with a pre-2023 count of 1.3 million properties escalating to 12.42 million, representing an 856 percent surge in properties identified that can now be properly billed,” the minister told parliament.

He added, “Similarly, the identification of registered persons and entities associated with billable properties has increased by 831 percent, from 186,542 to 15.68 million.”

However, this has not generated the intended revenue, as the Finance Minister admitted that the system has encountered some challenges.

“The system has encountered some challenges, thus making it difficult for the relevant bodies, including the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, to have access to their share of the property rate collections on time.”

Some Ghanaians say they are not motivated to pay property rates because they do not see the funds being used for developmental projects.

Reporting by Albert Kuzor in the Volta Region