Fred Andema, the KCCA acting director revenue, says the improved growth will help the Authority improve service delivery for city dwellers, including garbage collection, street lighting and maintenance of street drainage channels.
Revenue from properties in the central business district has more than doubled to UGX21 billion this financial year, up from UGX9 billion in the year 2005, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has said.
The authority in charge of the capital city last year undertook a bold move to valuate properties in the central division where it was revealed that the old roll had put ratable properties in the CBD at only 9,000.
KCCA also tripled property tax, leaving many landlords up in arms.
The new evaluation put the number at 16,000 while the number of properties in Nakawa shot up from 26,000 in 2004 to about 65,000 in 2017.
The valuation of properties, an ongoing process, is being done alongside another process of property identification, where houses are assigned numbers, roads naming and installation of street lights.
Fred Andema, the KCCA acting director revenue, says the improved growth will help the Authority improve service delivery for city dwellers, including garbage collection, street lighting and maintenance of street drainage channels.
Property tax is the levy on any property that exists within the jurisdiction of the city.
Andema said property tax is determined in two ways; for instance, residential rented houses like rentals or apartments, they compute the total amount of money such a building makes annually and after all other expenses have been made, KCCA taxes only 6% of the remaining amount.
For commercial buildings such as arcades, he said that they measure the space in square metres per floor and the amount of money each floor makes annually.
However, areas within the building that doesn’t constitute commercial space in the building are not measured and the purpose of valuing the space on each floor, Andema said, is to determine how much money each floor makes annually so when the total amount is got, they deduct all the expenses incurred by the landlord on the building and then tax 6% of the net amount.
The values on which property rates are based are determined by qualified and registered valuation surveyors.
However, property tax excludes residential houses, registered worship places such as churches and mosques, local council offices, recreational centres, the president’s office and embassies.
Although city landlords had protested the fee at first, Andema said that they have since agreed to pay because they were engaged and later understood the reasons the Authority had come up with a few adjustments.
Asuman Basalirwa, the chairperson of the Valuation Court, says landlords who are still not contented with the valuation rates of their buildings always lodge their complaints to the court which sits and addresses them.
He says many of them have been deposed of through dialogue and litigation.
In February, KCCA published a draft valuation list for properties in 23 parishes located in the central division. Some of the parishes include Kisenyi I, Kololo I, Kololo II, Industrial Area, Kagugube, Mengo, Kitante, Lugogo, Nakasero I and Old Kampala, among others.
However, a person is not entitled to be heard by the Valuation Court unless he has lodged a notice of objection within the stipulated time of 30 days.
The projected increase in taxes from property rates, Mr Andema said, will see the institution boost service delivery in the city.
It should be noted that property Tax is managed by the Directorate of Revenue Collection as the same was created by Act of Parliament 2010 and became effective 1st March 2011.
Revenue is a key factor for Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) in achieving her mandate as provided for in Kampala Capital City Act 2010 (Section 50).
The Act provides for the power to levy taxes giving KCCA the responsibility to levy, charge, collect and appropriate fees and taxes in accordance with the law as enacted by Parliament under article 152 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda.