Pretoria - The City of Tshwane residents would have to dig deeper into their pockets to service their utility bills in the wake of tariff increases announced by Mayor Stevens Mokgalapa on Wednesday.
During his delivery of the 2019/2020 budget speech at Tshwane House, Mokgalapa said tariff hikes for utilities would be increased effective from July.
Water tariffs would be increased by 8% while the bulk purchases tariff would go up by 10% from Rand Water.
Mokgalapa indicated that electricity prices would be hiked up by 12% while 8% tariff increase would be applied to sanitation.
He said the City's intention was to ensure tariffs were affordable to the customers, however "some of the increases such as Eskom and Rand Water are not within the City’s control".
"The National Energy Regulator of South Africa published the Municipal Tariff Guideline Increase of 13,07%. The City has therefore accordingly budgeted for a revenue increase of 12% and these figures are likely to be factored in when we do the midterm review,"he said.
The property rates tariff, on the other hand, would increase by 6% for all categories of properties.
"All residential properties are not charged any property rates on the first R150 000 of the value," he said.
Waste removal and city cleansing would be discontinued in terms of the refuse tariff structure that has been amended.
"A single tariff structure with a tariff increase of 6% has been applied in the 2019/20 MTREF (Medium Term Revenue and Expenditure Framework)," he said.
Mokgalapa said the budget was pro-poor, saying it impressed on the 28 000 City employees to deliver services to the people without excuses.
He said he was mindful that the budget was delivered during hard economic times in the country.
He announced that the operating revenue amounted to R35,5 billion, which was an increase of 7,5% against the 2018/19 adjustment budget.
"Operating expenditure amounts to R35,4 billion an increase of 7,6% against the 2018/19 Adjustment Budget, resulting in a surplus of R19,6 million for the 2019/20 financial year. This places the city in good standing," he said.
Mokgalapa said the total capital budget amounted to R4,2 billion for the 2019/20 and R4,6 billion for 2020/21 and 2021/22, respectively.
"This is a R200 million increment from the 2018/2019," he said.