The Mayor and City Council’s (M&CC) amnesty on the interest accumulated on property rates owed to the council began on Tuesday.
The amnesty, which is to be offered for the duration of the month of September, will avail those who are in arrears with the M&CC an opportunity to clear their debt.
Residential property owners are being offered a 100% amnesty on the interest of the rates they owe to the council. While commercial and corporate property owners will be offered a 50% to 75% amnesty, dependent on special circumstances.
According to Town Clerk Royston King, these circumstances include, but are not limited to the length of time rates have been outstanding, the type of business, location of business and previous regularity of payment.
The amount of amnesty granted for each commercial and corporate property owner will be decided by a special committee.
This committee headed by councillor Junior Garret will evaluate their circumstance and having done so decide where on the spectrum of 50% to 75% their amnesty will fall.
King told Stabroek News that the council is heartened by the fact that citizens have started to take full advantage of amnesty offered.
Mayor Hamilton Green addressing concerns of commercial and corporate property owners who claim to have been unable to access the amnesty said, “We will examine each case separately. We are not whimsically granting amnesty. There are some business people, who are not short of cash but as part of a process to suffocate the city have not been paying. Those persons will not be granted amnesty, and we know them, I know them. The amnesty is not for that. I have faith in the committee established to look at it case by case.”
The Mayor explained that the amnesty “is for people who have suffered economic deprivation to be able to pay off their rates since our interest is very high.”
