RATING ACT LOOPHOLES UNDER SPOTLIGHT

MBABANE – The Rating Act was stated as another legislative bottleneck mentioned by companies in the 2017 annual company visits.

The current status according to the Company Survey 2017 is that the amended Rating Act Bill was submitted to Parliament; however, it still awaits approval. Areas of improvement was that other amendments to the Act still remained for instance, taxes by pensioners and orphans, issues around maximising the well-being of the lower income earners without burdening them too much, and issues around property tax.

Under real estate, the report stated that the valuation industry was unregulated.
“According to the Deeds of Registration office, there are 10 registered valuation companies in the private sector, with two being Swazi owned. These are registered under the Rating Act.

The report states that the areas of improvement include that expedition in the formulation of the legislation by the Registration of Deeds office and its approval could help resolve some of these issues.
“The office is also working on having an association. If this Bill is submitted, then this could be grounds for proper regulation of the industry,” the report states.

Entities

Meanwhile, the report states that the entities surveyed in the real estate sector reported declines in turnover from property sales and rentals during 2016.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: