As 2025 winds down, Georgetown Mayor, Alfred Mentore, is pleading with property owners, businesses and government agencies within the city of Georgetown to pay up their rates and taxes.

In an interview, Mayor Mentore said while the Municipality has seen an increase in the collection of rates and taxes due to measures implemented by the Council, 45% of the total number to be collected remains outstanding.

“We have 45% of the people are delinquent and many of those persons that are delinquent are now building high rises, and many of them, even though they may pay their taxes, they are paying their taxes still on what the building was before, they are now paying their taxes on the new development itself, and that in itself puts unnecessary pressure on the system,” the Mayor said.

A sample of official documents indicate that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs owes more than $440,000 while the Guyana Sugar Corporation owes approximately $200,000; and the Guyana Energy Authority owes some $839,000. Mayor Mentore told reporters that those are just an extremely small percentage of the 45% that are in default.

Alluding to the state agencies that are in default, the Mayor contends those agencies have failed to effect payment, although in many instances, the National Assembly would have approved the sums in the National Budget.

“For sure, many of these moneys are actually allocated but are not disbursed and that is something that we have to get government to treat with and to get government to honour their obligations to us because it is very important. If you are going to budget for it and then you don’t disburse it to the council, that defeats the purpose of actually having the money available but not disbursing it, and it indirectly starves the council of resources,” the Mayor said.

He hopes to engage the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Priya Manickchand on this and other issues.

The Mayor said while some Government agencies have been dragging their feet on the payment of their rates and taxes, he is happy to report that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Health are among those that have honored their obligations for 2025.

The Mayor is warning that in 2026, the Municipality will be upping its campaign to recover the outstanding rates and taxes by aggressively pursuing delinquent and defaulting ratepayers, including central government and state agencies and businesses.

The City Mayor said the Council will be enforcing Section 220 of Chapter 28:01 – The Municipal and District Council Act – to recover the rates owed.

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