M. Tech. Local Government / The challenge of continued non-payment for municipal services has its origin in the liberation struggle against apartheid, where municipal rates were deliberately not paid. This was a form of protestation against the illegitimate apartheid structures of local government imposed on the local communities, especially in the black areas. Unfortunately, this "weapon" that was used to fight apartheid has now become a challenge in post-1994 local government system, with some suggesting that it has evolved into a culture of non-payment for municipal services. But, why would this culture evolve in the post-apartheid era? This question is asked because in 1994 South Africa became a democratic state, where the citizens elected government of their own and mechanisms to institutionalize community participation in the processes of governance were introduced. The issue therefore is no longer of the illegitimate local government structures imposed on the people. So, the question is, why do people still continue to not pay their municipal services? Most municipalities in South Africa are unable to sustain their constitutional mandate of providing services to their communities as their revenue capacity is declining because of non-payment for municipal services. Against this background, the question that this study asks is what are the reasons for the continued non-payment for municipal services in the City of Tshwane? Coupled to this question is yet another important question, which this study also considers: how does the City of Tshwane deal with the challenge of non-payment for municipal services? The attempt to answer this question starts with an examination of the phenomenon of non-payment for municipal services in the City of Tshwane to highlight it as a challenge for the local sphere of government in South Africa. The purpose of the study is to understand the reasons for the continued non-payment for municipal services and how the City of Tshwane deals with this challenge.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2008. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Public Administration and Management / M. Admin. (Public Administration)

After the big crisis of 2008, the Federal Government sought to mitigate its effects that could be catastrophic in the Brazilian economy. In order to protect the industry, one of the main actions implemented was to reduce the tax on industrialized products. While actions to protect employment in industries resulted effects, the municipalities have suffered with the decline of the Municipalities Participation Fund (MPF), whose composition is via the collection of the industrial production tax and Income Tax. For municipalities, the reduction of federal transfers showed problems in the process of tax collection of the taxes within their competence. The interest of investigating the institutional scope of the municipal administration appear with this issue, in order to discover the role of institutional design in the performance of their revenues. In the first chapter were treated the elements that form the basis of institutionalist thought, emerging School Institutionalist Original and New Institutional Economics. The following section shows the evolution of the Brazilian tax system in the context of Brazilian municipalities. The paper goes on an analysis of situational variables and variables that are involved in municipal tax profile. It competed the next chapter descriptive analysis and correlation of the qualitative variables, their specificities and their relationship with some situational variables. It was observed that the municipalities that put forward highest contribution of the industry in the composition of their Gross domestic product (GDP) performed better in all of their revenues. Moreover, it emerged the concept that is crucial to the presence and interaction of a number of other institutions, including productive in the local context, bringing a situation to diversify its economy. / Após a grande crise de 2008, o Governo Federal buscou amenizar os seus efeitos que poderiam ser catastróficos na economia brasileira. Com o objetivo de proteger a indústria, uma das principais medidas implementadas foi a redução do Imposto sobre o produto industrializado. Ao passo que as medidas de proteger o emprego nas indústrias surtiam efeitos, os municípios brasileiros sofreram com a diminuição do Fundo de Participação dos Municípios (FPM), cuja composição se dá através da arrecadação do IPI e Imposto de Renda. Para os municípios, a diminuição dos repasses federais revelou os problemas no processo de arrecadação fiscal dos impostos de sua competência. O interesse de investigar o escopo institucional da administração municipal partiu dessa problemática, no sentido de descobrir o papel do desenho institucional no desempenho das suas receitas. No primeiro capítulo foram tratados os elementos que formam a base do pensamento institucionalista, emergindo a Escola Institucionalista Original e na Nova Economia Institucional. A seção seguinte mostra a evolução do sistema tributário brasileiro no contexto dos municípios brasileiro. O trabalho segue com uma análise de variáveis conjunturais e variáveis que estão envolvidas no perfil tributário municipal. Competiu ao capítulo seguinte a análise descritiva e de correlação das variáveis qualitativas, suas especificidades e sua relação com algumas variáveis conjunturais. Foi visto que os municípios que apresentaram maior participação da indústria na composição do seu PIB obtiveram melhor desempenho na totalidade das suas receitas. Ademais, emergiu a concepção de que é crucial a presença e a interação de um conjunto de outras instituições, inclusive produtivas, no contexto local, trazendo consigo uma situação de diversificação de sua economia.

Thesis (Ph. D. (Public Administration)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / Municipalities have the responsibility to deliver services to the communities in a fast and efficient manner, and to deliver these services there is a need for financial resources and institutional capacity. The challenge that beset the municipalities is that they struggle to collect revenue. There is a gap between available financial resources and the municipal expenditure needs largely as a result of the revenue collection challenges facing the municipalities. The revenue collection challenge therefore, needs to be adequately addressed for the municipalities to be successful. Municipalities have the right to finance their affairs through charging fees for services; imposing surcharges on fees, rates, levies and duties. The municipal council have the responsibility to implement and adopt tariff policies. These tariff policies must espouse the principles that ensure the equitable treatment of municipal service users. Tariff policies must also ensure that the amount paid by individual users for services is proportionate to their usage. Municipalities should, in terms of law, differentiate between the different categories of ratepayers, users of services, debtors, taxes, services and service standard. This study was based on the combination of both qualitative and quantitative research design. It followed a case study approach of comparative investigation between the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality revenue collection and South African Revenue Service. The quantitative research was done through the administration of questionnaires to the ratepayers, corporate taxpayers and tax practitioners. This was complemented by the qualitative in-depth interview questionnaires administered to both South African Revenue Service and the Tshwane Metropolitan municipality to ensure that the data collected are both collaborated and diverse to enable the researcher to draw a balanced conclusion. In the light of the above, this study therefore investigated the strategies and legislative framework that is employed by the municipalities and contrasted with those that are used by the South African Revenue Service, with the aim of taking possible learnings that can be applied in the municipalities. The study concluded by proposing guidelines that can be used by municipalities in revenue collection.

Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Local governments have been identified as the main catalyst for service delivery provisions. However, challenges, such as capacity and lack of financial sustainability, means many municipalities struggle to meet this obligation. This study sought to evaluate the challenges the Musina Local Municipality faces in their attempt to manage their finances for financial sustainability. The study adopted a quantitative approach. A structured self-administered questionnaire was employed as a data collection tool from sampled respondents. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the gathered data. The findings of this study indicate that the main challenge confronting the Musina Local Municipality was the low revenue collection. This is mostly as a consequence of community members’ inability to pay for services due to their unaffordability. The findings reveal that the Musina Local municipality made most of its revenue income from property rates, services charged on tariffs and fines. As such, failure by customers often left it in financial distress. The municipality’s poor financial position leads to other challenges, such as inability to pay creditors, lack of financial reserves, diversion of grant funding to fund the operation deficits. The study, therefore, concludes that the municipality is not financially sustainable. The study recommends that the municipality should develop a sound billing and revenue collection structure and place more emphasis on revenue collection of monies owed to them for amenities rendered.

M. Tech. (Department Management Accounting, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / Municipal debt has been steadily rising year after year, jeopardizing the financial stability of many municipalities. There is a commonly overlooked provision within the Municipal Finance Management Act, section 64(2)(a), that states that the municipal manager must ensure that the municipality has a functional credit management and debt collection system. However, it is also the obligation of municipal residents to ensure that they pay rates and taxes for the services supplied to them in order to ensure the sustainability of service supply. Municipalities rely on revenue collection to ensure their survival and viability. Due to the importance of this sphere of government, this study investigates whether residents respond to the credit management policy of the municipality and whether it is implemented effectively. The study does so by looking at the relationship between credit management policy implementation and service delivery in the selected municipality in Sedibeng District. The study followed a quantitative research methodology, using self-administered hard copy questionnaires to collect data from 510 residents of municipality A of Sedibeng District municipality. Seven (7) different locations with the demographic of municipality A of Sedibeng District were selected to participate in the study, with a response rate of 100%. Data were statistically analysed through SPSS and testing included correlation analysis, factor analysis, frequency counting and ANOVA testing. The data collected revealed that there is a lack of credit management policy implementation and enforcement when it comes to non-payment of municipal outstanding accounts. According to the quantitative findings, residents have a negative attitude towards the credit management policy. However, the findings also showed that there are factors that influence responsiveness such as poverty, (un)employment and educational level. The findings also revealed a significant relationship between credit management policy and service delivery. Failure to pay municipal debts results in poor service delivery by municipalities. because they lack the financial stability necessary to provide a sustainable service supply. In turn, poor service delivery results in residents refusing to pay municipal debts because they are unwilling to pay for poor services. Recommendations such as continuous review of critical debt recovery policies, rebates and discount granted to residents, the introduction of advanced technical systems, quality service delivery, employee training and development and the like will assist municipalities to improve the effectiveness of their credit management policy implementation. The limitations to of study entails difficulty in obtaining municipal ethical clearance, because municipal officers are concerned about confidentiality. Furthermore, there were the COVID-19 regulations posed by the South African government to curb the spread of COVID-19 which also had an impact in collecting data from participants. The findings may not be generalised to a larger population of all South African municipalities.