…60% of Lindeners deemed defaulters

THE cash- strapped Linden Mayor and Town Council, is currently on a drive to recover outstanding rates and taxes from residential and commercial class defaulters.

Currently, 60% of those registered to pay rates and taxes have outstanding balances, bringing the total in excess of $9M. The Council has decided that the means of recovering these monies will be done in phases and the first and second of these, where defaulters were summoned with notices and then their names publicly listed, were already done.

If residents continue to default in payments, legal implications will follow. Linden Mayor Waneka Arrindell had related that the establishment of a municipal court is in the pipeline, to deal with such matters. She is urging residents to pay their rates and taxes as the Council, that is also hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, runs at a deficit every month. “I am asking persons to come into the municipality and pay their debts, our resources are stretched, every month we are running at a deficit. Currently we have 134 staff that we have to pay and this expense is more than $10 M per month,” she revealed.
Residents, more so businesses, should not have a challenge of paying their taxes, as the pay scale has not been upgraded since the 1970s and is as low as $1000 and $1200 per year.

In addition, only a section of Linden has been handed over to the Council and Arrindell mulled asking residents whose communities are not yet regularized under the municipality of Linden, to pay a monthly contribution to the Council, since they still receive services, such as garbage collection. She said some residents have taken the initiative and do so every month.

In addition to the monthly expenses, the Council is also taxed with repaying funds monthly to places it is indebted to. These include the National Insurance Scheme and the Linden Utility Services, Coop Society Limited (LUSCSL).

The council also wants the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) to settle its debts, as this would also greatly assist in its financial situation. Calls are still being made for Central Government to look into the plight of the municipality and assist through a cash payout.