BCC billing system riles companies

Source: BCC billing system riles companies – The Southern Eye

THE Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) and Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) have expressed displeasure over the Bulawayo City Council (BCC)’s United States dollar-denominated tariffs.

In a statement last week, signed by CZI and ZNCC joint committee chairperson Louis Herbst, the two organisations have since met the council to express their concerns over the local authority’s bills.

“We note that rates and other charges have been onerous since June 2022. Our members raised concern about the new charges since June 2022 and they requested information from council management to determine the legitimacy of the new charges,” ZNCC said.

The statement indicated that following unsuccessful requests for the information, Provincial and Devolution Affairs minister for Bulawayo Judith Ncube summoned council management to discuss the issue.

“Council management appealed to the minister to allow them to directly engage us at their offices,’’ the statement read.

It was also revealed that a meeting was held at council chambers on November 21, 2022, chaired by the city finance director Kempton Ndimande in which the bone of contention was centred on the formula used to convert the 2022 tariffs to USD.

“Ndimande requested us to set up a committee to work with the council accounts team. Following the conclusion of the meeting a combined committee of ZNCC and CZI members chaired by Herbst was constituted. The committee has employed consultants who are experts in pricing models to constitute a professional team to meet with council management,’’ the statement added.

“I was not in attendance. The finance director may explain better,’’ BCC mayor Solomon Mguni said when contacted by Southern Eye for a comment.