KCCA: residential houses to resume paying property tax

By Namugerwa Martha

Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA wants owners of private residential houses in the city to resume paying property taxes in order to increase on its income since the authority was deducted some money from it’s budget to help other government sectors.

The KCCA Executive Director Jenifer Musisi said that the property tax waiver on private residential houses costs the Authority over Shs 5billion annually yet previously almost all the owners of residential houses used to pay property rates.

Musisi said that almost all the owners of houses in upscale parts of the city are not paying property tax, and owners of multiple houses in the City avoid paying the property rates claiming that they don’t reside in the houses they rent them out.

“The Authority plans to carry out a fresh valuation exercise in the city, the last valuation was carried out ten years ago yet many of the newly constructed malls and houses are not paying the property rates because they have not been valued,” Musisi said.

She added that KCCA has embarked on an automation of property rates management, targeting to register over 250,000 properties from the 120,000 properties registered and they expect to collect seventeen million dollars annually from property rates.

However, during the 2006 presidential election campaigns HE Yoweri Museveni, said that those staying in the houses should be exempted. As a result, the Local Government Act was amended to cater for exemption.

The Local Government Act 2005 and its amendments of 2006 also exempts official residence of the President, a traditional or cultural leader and property used exclusively for public worship, and residences of a religious leader from property tax.