Statement on Approved Increases in Rates and Tariffs Applicable from 1st July By D F Hunt Shadow MMC on the Environment and Infrastructure Services At the Council meeting held on the 23rd May 2013 the rates increases, and the revised tariffs for 2013 were approved despite opposition from the DA. These will come into effect as from the 1st July 2013. This is intended to provide guidelines to residents as to what to expect in their account later this month. An increase in Rates across the board of 5,3% was approved despite the DA calling for a rates increase holiday in the year in which the new property valuations come into effect with an increase of property values by probably, on average, between 10 to 30% for each household or property. So the householder is likely to see an increase on this account on top of the 5.3%. In some prior years, the City did not increase the rates in the re-valuation year. This is offset by an adjustment to the entry level from R150 000 to R200 000 i.e. the level at which payment commences. This is the first time that an adjustment has been made since 2008/9. A small but welcome concession of 10% has been made to residential agricultural homeowners. There is also welcome relief for pensioners.: the entry level for rebates has been increased, and 100% relief given for over-70s whose property is less than R2m in value. Business gets some relief in that the category ratio for business and commercial has been reduced from 3.5 to 3. leading to a reduction in rates of 9,7%. However these too must be offset against the increases due to re-valuation. The Electricity increases have some good parts but are yet to be finalised being dependent on the final approval from NERSA and the internal procedures of the Council. It is anticipated that the increases accepted on the 23rd May could be reduced by a few percentage points so that the aggregated increment is 7% rather than 7.32% as approved. City Power has re-structured the tariffs for domestic customers on conventional metering quite extensively. The fixed charges are being increased by 28% for single phase, and 22 % for three phase customers while the energy charge has been reduced: eg the energy charge for the first 1000 kWh will cost around 5% less than at present. Therefore at consumptions of up to 2000 kWh consumers could see an overall increase of up to 6,3% It also means then correspondingly less for lower consumptions, and even an overall reduction at very low levels of consumption. We have been assured that the inclining block tariffs, will be applied in the more usual way (as they are by Johannesburg Water), i.e. the first 500 kWh will be charged for at the lowest rate, and that determination will not be changed with further consumption ; units beyond that into the next block will be charged at the next rate and so on. This has been a change the DA has pushing for, for some time and should eliminate some of the anomalies experienced. Pre-paid customers have two benefits, City Power will start charging every month at the lowest rate, and as the consumption increases during the month the unit price will increase in accordance with the inclining block. The DA has been pushing for this for some time as well. An even more dramatic re-structuring is underway with the tariffs for business and commercial customers. Fixed charges are up by around 75% to 87% and are counterbalanced by reductions in the energy charges: in the high season by up to 20% and in the low season 10% to 2 % less as the user climbs up the tariff blocks with increasing consumption. The re-structuring is intended to encourage reduced consumption There is no more good news: the increase for refuse removal for domestic customers of 10% and 9 % for others is above inflation and objectionable. The increases for water vary from 5,4% in the first consumption bracket up to a high of 10.84% for the highest block. The sanitation increase of 9.82 % is excessive. For many households the sanitation charges will be higher than their water consumption amounts. So the increase to be experienced, assuming a consumption of 20 kl/mth, is likely to be around 8 % rising to 10% with say 40kl consumption. The company predicts an increase in revenue of 11 %. which can be considered indicative. Enquiries : Denis F Hunt 083 800 2144 or [email protected]
Posted on: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 10:44:14 +0000
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