Solwezi Municipal Council has debt stock of K32 million arising from servicing of the new civic center loans whose maturity date is July 2021 and other statutory obligations.
Council Assistant Public Relations Manager, Esther Chirwa said of the K32 million, K10.3 million is towards bank loans, K17 million statutory obligations and K4.7 million for suppliers of goods and services as well as court awards.
Ms Chirwa disclosed that the wage bill for the local authority is in excess of K20 millions of which more than half of it is financed through revenue collected from local tax payers.
She said all the debt the council has is pressing against a shrunken resource envelope of K55 million.
Ms Chirwa added that the debt is financially stressing for the council and suffocating its ability to deliver appreciable levels of services to the public.
She however, stated that despite the debt, the local authority is implementing more than 20 community projects this year at a total value exceeding K6.6 million financed from local revenue collections.
Ms Chirwa said the number of projects and amount of money ploughed in service provision will increase with corresponding decrease in debt servicing if the council does not slide back into unsustainable debt.
