The business community in Harare has expressed unhappiness over the shop licences fee hike by the Harare City Council.
A number of small to medium enterprise businesspersons have signed a petition against the increase. Part of the petition reads:
As the business community of Harare guided by the Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29:15), we feel obliged to be consulted on issues of city budgets.
We are guided by Section 86 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, which gives us the right to have access to information with regards to our operations.
Currently, we are experiencing deflation as per the Minister of Finance and Economic Development’s economic outlook for 2022.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe auction rate has remained the same for the last three months.
One businesswoman operating hair salons in the capital told H-Metro that her licence fee had gone up from US$400 to US$640.
She said the “unjustified charges” may force small businesses to close shop. Another shop owner said:
It’s an unjustified increase. They want to force all licence holders into vending where corruption is rampant; this is not good at all.
A significant number of shops in Harare’s Central Business District are reportedly operating without licences and some city officials are allegedly taking bribes not to shut them down. | H-Metro
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There is no reasonable cause for license fee increase at all. Council is just greedy.
They do not know the purpose of license fees. They should appreciate that they also charge rates for the same premises they are charging license fees.
License fees must not constitute the source of luxury funding for the city’s bloated workforce. Increasing license fees wantonly is myopic in that business will simply abandon the city premises and create a ghost town.
The council will not get revenue at all. The current US$400 is already exhorbitant. If anything, the fees must be reduced to below $100 or US$0. 50 per square meter, which ever is the lower.
If council cannot imagine other creative sources of cash flow, they should retrench their bloated workforce.
In any case ,there is no service that the council is giving to anyone, let alone business.
It does not matter the level of inflation in the economy, there is no justification for license fee increases on a yearly basis.
The same applies to property rates. It is sheer madness and greedy to increase rates for a property on a ground serviced by Cecil John Rhodes in 1903.
The costs have been paid over more than 5 times. There is no reason to increase rates on such properties let alone license fees.
There shall come a time when residents will say enough is enough.
Stop the wanton license increases, you disrupt business that is trying to rebuild from rampant inflatiin of past years.
Even if licences are increased by 200%, the service to residents is equal to the same service received if licence fees are done away with altogether.
Increasing license fees, by extension increasing theft of council cash, is fast track to prison for city fathers.
Stop the madness!.