Monrovia – Disagreement is said to be growing between business owners and the Paynesville City Council over the imposition of high municipal taxes against businesses in the commercial city by the city council.
Report by: Kennedy L. Yangian – kennedylyangian @frontpageafricaonline.com
The over 500 hundred business owners in a meeting held in Paynesville over the weekend at the residence of one of the affected, told FrontPageAfrica that the yearly municipal taxes charged by the City Council in Paynesville is higher than the one charged by central government.
A Spokesperson of the business owner who spoke on the basis of anonymity said the central government charged was LD$2,000.00 yearly contrary to that of the Paynesville City Council.
“Central government is charging us LD$2,000 as municipal tax knowing the economic problems facing businesses in the country while the Paynesville City Council is charging far more, this is un-acceptable”, they asserted.
Documents in the possession of FrontPageAfrica, issued to a Gas Station in the area by the Paynesville City Corporation indicate that entity was charged an amount of US$80.00 as well as US$ 30.00 as garbage fees, totaling US$110.00.
The documents signed by the data entry clerk, commercial head and comptroller, bears no name, demanding that the payment for 2016 must be paid within 30 days at the Paynesville City Corporation (PCC).
The business owner’s spokesperson says that in the wake of the financial difficulties facing their businesses as the result of the high exchange rates in the country, they cannot afford to pay such high fees in the US dollar currency.
“We know that we have to pay garbage fees to clean our business centers but why has the PCC decided to make the fee high, we will not accept it” said the spokesperson.
When the FrontPageAfrica contacted the Spokesperson of the Paynesville City Council Jani Jallah recently claimed that the taxes were mandated by the Legislature and is intended to beef up the city council financial strength in cleaning the city of Paynesville.
Though, the PCC Spokesperson did not say how much was the city council budget, it indicated that the budget allotted by the National Legislature to the PCC was small to cater to its work force.
“We don’t have the needed logistics, those garbage trucks you see out there are all donations from goodwill countries while we also have to cater to those out there by cleaning the streets” said the PCC spokesperson.