By JAMES KUNDA –
THE Government has no immediate plans to reintroduce crop levy as there are other effective strategies being implemented for councils to generate income, Local Government and Housing Minister Emmanuel Chenda has said.
Crop levy is a form of tax charged by councils to anyone transporting crops or grain from one district to another.
Mr Chenda said in an interview that in the absence of the crop levy, Government would next year establish a Local Government Equalisation Fund (LGEF) to boost council operations.
Mr Chenda was responding to recent proposals by the Local Government Association of Zambia (LGAZ) which called for the reintroduction of crop levy to broaden the revenue base for the local authorities.
Mr Chenda, however, said the Ministry of Finance was committed to the process of formulating the LGEF so that councils had a pool of resources to ease their operations.
He said the Government was also looking at how motor vehicle licensing could be handled by the councils to rope in more funds for the local authority.
“The LGEF is near its implementation stage as the Ministry of Finance has made headways towards its formulation,” Mr Chenda said.
“We are also trying to see how motor vehicle licensing, for instance, can be now done by the councils, therefore it will not be necessary to reintroduce the crop levy”.
Mr Chenda said should the options fail, the Government would then consider the reintroduction of crop levy as a means for councils to generate income