— M&CC encourages ratepayers

PUBLIC Relations Officer of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) Debra Lewis has informed that ratepayers who make payments to City Hall during the first quarter of 2019 will be exempted from paying interest.

Lewis said the M&CC is thankful to all those property owners who have honoured their civic obligation during 2018. Their commitment, she said, has enabled the municipality to provide critical services to the citizens of Georgetown.

Lewis reminded that general rates can be paid in four installments being made on February 1, April 1, July 1, and October1. “Citizens are advised to walk with their receipts collected on payments of the previous year and cheques should be made payable to the ‘Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown’ or ‘Mayor and City Council’ and crossed Account Payee Only.”

According to Lewis, the Council’s Finance Chairman, Mr. Oscar Clarke, is meeting with Departmental and sectional heads to finalise the budgetary estimates for the year 2019.
The M&CC had announced a number of amnesty periods aimed at encouraging defaulting taxpayers to visit the municipality and make payments, or even work out a plan on how they would pay their outstanding balances.

Lewis had said, though, that it has been observed that whenever amnesty periods are offered by the municipality, some of those who owe do not even budge to at least have dialogue with City Hall.

For this reason, the M&CC was thinking of publishing in the newspapers the names and addresses of all those who owe and said the municipality was also looking to take these individuals to court.

Persons, she said, can avoid such embarrassment if they make an effort to contact the municipality.