THE Ondangwa Town Council plans offering incentives to business people who are in arrears with their payments for services by offering an amnesty on the interest charged on the arrears.
This comes after the council observed that some businesses and house owners were not paying for council services rendered mainly because of the Covid-19 induced negative economic down turn in the country.
Mayor Paavo Amwele told during a business community meeting at Ondangwa on Friday:
“This situation is affecting a lot of people including the ratepayers’ ability to honour their monthly bills which also affects the council’s abilities to execute all its planned projects.
“This is where we in council need to come together with the business fraternity and put up smart partnerships to save our local economy and jobs by sustaining, nurturing and assisting to sail through these difficult times
“We believe that once the above is done and our businesses are saved, jobs are secured, there will not be too many retrenchments by businesses and our residents will be able to at least pay their bills on time,” he said.
Amwele said the council is willing to offer a grace period starting from March 2021 to June 2022 for businesses to make arrangements to pay off their arrears and the council will waiver the interest charged.
“Once this period is over and you have not paid then normal charging will resume and you will be responsible for all the unpaid charges including interest. Council believes this relief we are offering will help our business people and indirectly help the entire population of Ondangwa,” said Amwele.
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