Municipality losing out...

By MOHAMMED AL A'ALI
RESIDENTS in Manama are losing out because thousands of dinars in taxes that should go back into improving the capital are being wrongly distributed around the country, according to municipal councillors.
They claim that municipal fees collected by the government are being pooled with those from the Central, Southern, Muharraq and Northern Governorates and used to fund projects in all five areas.
However, councillors say this violates the Municipal Law because fees collected from Manama should only be used by the Manama Municipality.
They now want to ensure that municipal fees collected from Manama are not used to finance projects elsewhere.
A report has been prepared on the issue by the council's financial, administrative and legislative affairs committee, which concluded that the Manama Municipality's revenue was being affected as a result.
The council will sit on Tuesday to vote on whether or not to retain municipal fees for Manama alone.
The council's financial, administrative and legislative affairs committee chairman, Majeed Millad Al Jazeeri, said the money could be used for projects that benefit people in the capital.
"We are speaking about thousands of dinars that are being entered into the joint municipal coffers, which also includes other municipalities besides ours," he told the GDN.
"The revenue in the joint coffers helps fund development and urbanisation projects in the country, but it comes from other fees - this is not one of them.
"We have our own projects that need financing and this money should be used for them, rather than in other areas in the Kingdom whose municipalities already have their own revenue."
Mr Al Jazeeri said he had studied the law carefully to ensure that the council's claims were genuine.
He added that councillors had already backed the demand to withhold the fees in principle, but would take the final vote on Tuesday.
"Things should be set right before the end of our term next month because new councillors will have projects in their minds and we don't want them to be stunned when they see the municipality's coffers not being up to their expectations," he said.
"This money is useful for our municipality and we hope to have it back in our coffers because other municipalities have no right to use it.
"They are not entitled to it as we are not entitled to theirs.
"They are just taking ours because our municipality has a high revenue, but if they continue to do so it will not be."
If councillors vote to retain municipal fees for use in Manama alone a letter will be sent to Municipalities and Agriculture Minister Ali Saleh Al Saleh informing him of the decision.