MINISTRY of Local Government and Rural Development Permanent Secretary Nicholas Phiri says only 172,000 out of over 500,000 properties in Lusaka pay property taxes. Speaking when he paid a courtesy call on Chadiza Town Council, Wednesday, Phiri said the failure to capture all properties had resulted in councils hiking property taxes. “I also want to inform you that for the longest period of time, in fact, I’ll dare say that for all the successive administrations, there’s been one underlining challenge to decentralisation and that challenge has been how to finance your activities. Our revenue sources have been very limited and this is why some of the local authorities have depended heavily, up to about 70 percent, on property taxes. Then...
