WESTERN PROVINCE RUBAVU — Landlords in Gisenyi town have protested the district’s move to extract tax arrears from them accumulated over a period of ten years. The landlords blame the district authority for having failed to collect the taxes in a period of ten years and waiting to impose ‘impossible and unaffordable taxes’ on them lately. Some claim that the taxes being levied are equivalent to the value of their plots. “That is too much money. It was the district’s fault to have spent all these years without collecting taxes from us. Some of us have received demand notes the value of our plots. Should we sell whatever we have to pay taxes? The district authority should be reasonable and should not make us suffer due to their weakness,” said a visibly angry Jean Paul Hakizimana one of the land lords. According to Evariste Bizimana the vice mayor in charge of economic development, the district authority is expecting over Frw300 million from the tax defaulters. He confirmed that the district had already issued demand notes to all land lords indicating seven days deadline within which to clear their outstanding debts. Asked how they would handle land owners whose debts are almost equivalent to their property and the people’s claim that it was the district’s fault not to ensure timely collection of the taxes, the mayor attributed the problem to the land lords. He said it was the land lords who failed to meet their constitutional obligation of paying annual property tax to the district leading to the current debts. “That is the law. Land owners are supposed to pay taxes. In fact in such a case where they have evaded the taxes all this long, the law states that they are even supposed to pay fine. They should blame themselves instead of the district authority for not reminding them to pay taxes,” explained Bizimana, without citing the particular law he referred to. Asked how they would handle those who fail to beat the seven-day deadline Bizimana said that the district would take a decision. “That is not a decision I can take alone as the vice mayor. We shall have to sit down and discuss on the measures that will be taken against land and plot owners that will have failed to meet their outstanding dues,” he said. He however indicated that the district authority will allow defaulters more time beyond the deadline and that they [district authority] will try to meet landlords with difficulties in payment to discuss how they can together handle the problem. Ends
