With only nine days left before the amnesty period for defaulting ratepayers ends on 31st of this month, Minister for Local Government, Premila Kumar has revealed that Suva City and Lautoka City have the highest number of defaulting ratepayers.

Municipal Councils in Fiji are owed more than $33 million in rate fee arrears with Suva City Council being owed $20 million.

She says it is unfair for the ratepayers to demand services without paying the rates whereas Municipal Councils are paying $1.3 million just to collect the garbage.

Kumar says they are trying to understand why the ratepayers are not paying and have begun ratepayer profiling to understand their situation.

She says they will try to work out a system where both the Municipal Council and the ratepayer can benefit.

She has stressed that if nothing works despite giving the opportunity, that is when they will take the hard-line approach such as naming and shaming, the Garnishee order which a legal method of collecting unpaid debts, or they can put the property on sale to recover the rates.

She says they are not threatening anybody but just applying the law.