BY WESWA RONNIE
MBALE
Authorities at Northern city division in Mbale city have closed over 200 business premises over none payment of ground rent and licenses.
According to Mr Martin Busiku the senior assistant town clerk, Northern city division the operation has been on today at areas like mission cells, Nakaloke and Nkoma.
He added that they want to recover over Shs 200 million which the division has lost due to tax evasion by those traders for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 financial year.
Mr Busiku also said that the operation is ongoing in the entire division and urged those who have not cleared to do so before closure.
He explained further that activities like road maintenance, opening new roads, paying councilors,and paying casual workers have been paralysed due to lack of local revenue.
Mr Samuel Wamundu one of the affected business persons at Mission cell said Covid19 affected them highly which has led to the delay in clearance of ground rent and licences tothe Northern division since most shops were closed during lockdown.
Mr Abdulla Magambo, a Mbale City Councilor representing the Northern city division, who is also a deputy speaker at Mbale city condemned what Northern city division did without first carrying out assessment.
“There are clients [businessmen] that have delayed to pay ground and licences because they don’t know the amount of money they are entitled to pay for their businesses, we should have carried out an assessment first,” said Mr Magambo. Ends.
