July billing error hits all Joburg property owners

The City of Joburg has duplicated VAT charges on the city cleaning levy and refuse charges on this month's accounts.

It is adding VAT on VAT-inclusive tariffs, resulting in increases of up to 25 percent.

The Property Owners' and Managers Association (Poma) has circulated a statement to all its members warning them about this additional charge and advising them not to pay it.

Poma head Renney Plit 'Property owners and managers should review their accounts and payments to the council. I suggest they only pay the correct tariff without the VAT duplication. When will we see the end of these billing errors?' he asked.

Natasha Bird realised the error immediately.

'I went into my local people's centre to query it. I was told, politely, it was a 'typo' and even though it is published on the COJ website, I'd be 'fighting a losing battle to try get the additional 14 percent VAT credited'. The consultant called his superior who confirmed there'd be no credits raised in this regard as it was an error.

'This error will rake in hundreds of thousands of rands that should not be collected,' she said.

Many South Africans are too complacent and despite complaining about the increases in utilities tariffs, they do nothing to arm themselves with the correct information and where there is a discrepancy, take it up with the relevant authorities.

The reason for this was that we were stonewalled by government departments that took no responsibility for their actions and in this case errors, she said.

'This 'typo' will affect every property owner in Joburg.

'I wonder how many have even downloaded the 2014/15 tariffs and picked up on the mistake? For some, it's a more timeous and fruitless task to query the discrepancies so the consumer just keeps on paying blindly,' she said.

The city, however, has admitted it was an error.

Stan Maphologela, spokesman for the city revenue department, said it was correct that a number of customers had received billing statements for July with duplicate VAT charges.

'This error is now being rectified and the correct information will be reflected on the August 2014 accounts. The errors crept in after the introduction of a new tariff structure for refuse,' he said.

'The city apologises. We are taking the necessary steps to rectify the errors, to inform customers about the error,' he said.

Customers who still have queries about their accounts are invited to contact Joburg Connect.

Article courtesy of The Star