Page 10 - SAPOA Property News - Volume 1

ANNUAL REVIEW OF RATES POLICIES
Annual Review of Rates Policies
SAPOA appointed Rates Watch (Pty) Limited in 2014 to annually monitor and comment on on the draft rates policies of the 8 metropolitan municipalities and 3 of the larger local municipalities (Mbombela Polokwane & Msunduzi) as follows:
IDPs and budget process of municipalities Public participation and the request for comments on draft policies follows after
the draft budget is tabled at a a a a Council meeting The Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003 (MFMA) stipulates that the documents must be tabled at least 90 days before the the start of the the budget year This process was severely disrupted with the the declaration of the the National State of Disaster on on 15 March Council meetings planned for the end of March 2020 had to be postponed in compliance with the lockdown regulations The Minister of Finance exempted municipalities from the provisions of the MFMA which require any action to be be taken between 30 March 2020 and the the date that the the national state of disaster lapses Municipalities had to continue with the budget process in order to to be able to to approve budgets for 2020/21 before 1 1 July 2020 2020 Closing dates for the submission of comments were extended Mangaung may have taken it too far the closing date is 27 June 2020 and we are concerned that it won’t be possible to consider all public submissions in their entirety and approve the budget before 1 July 2020 • Ethekwini
• JHB
• Ekurhuleni
• Nelson Mandela Bay
• Cape Town • Mangaung • Buffalo City
• Tshwane • Polokwane • Mbombela • Msunduzi It is required that every municipality must have a a a rates policy which must be reviewed annually Rates policies inter alia determine the following:
The categories for differential rates will be reflected in the valuation roll and tariffs for the different categories must be determined in in the budget Rates Policies
must be reviewed annually and this process forms part of of the annual review of of • Property categories for purposes of differential rates • Rates ratios • Exemptions rebates and reductions for categories of of properties categories of of owners 10 SAPOA PROPERTY NEWS