THIS week, I have featured a topic on how councils need to be aided financially to improve service delivery in line with expectations from members of the public.

It goes without saying that every council in Zambia, District, Municipal or City, operates on stringent budgets due to insufficient funds and this has led to poor service delivery.

I have been keenly following proposals such as the reintroduction of crop levy and policies such as the Local Government Equalisation Fund (LGEF) which took effect this year as an annual grant to councils.

First and foremost, the crop levy, which is a form of tax charged by councils to anyone transporting crops or grain from one district to the other, was scrapped off in 2009.

According to the Grain Traders Association of Zambia (GTAZ), the move to do away with crop levy was ideal in that the tax brought in additional taxes that increased the cost of doing business.

From the view of the grain trader, reintroducing the crop levy will mean that the private buyers of the commodities such as maize will be paying more to move products from one point to another.

But Local Government Association of Zambia (LGAZ) Copperbelt chapter chairperson Samuel Munthali describes the crop levy as a business venture that gives councils the ability to generate income on their own to sustain their operations.

It is clear that while the policy works well for the council it defeats the whole idea of generating profit from private grain trading.

Have the policy makers dialogued about this prospect? There is need to pursue a win-win solution here more so that the grain traders are public citizens who need council services delivered promptly.

I support the call to reintroduce the crop levy because council services are an activity on every season while there are supplementary ventures that can shield grain traders from the loss of remitting the tax.

In the 2015 National Budget, Government allocated K586.8 million for LGEF to aid councils address administrative costs such as personal emoluments, wages and allowances.

According to Local Government and Housing Deputy Minister Nicholas Banda, the LGEF is being disbursed monthly and councils countrywide are getting their fair share of the pie.

However, the availability of the grant councils have continued to experience erratic cash flows leading to workers in lower age brackets getting their pay late.

This indicates that even the LGEF is not adequate to supplement funding to councils and thus that crop levy will be a welcome relief for the local authority.

However, the crop levy and LGEF need to be supplemented through other business ventures where the council can generate funds that will ensure sustainability of service delivery.

Councils have tried to be innovative by engaging private partners in business activities such as street parking maintenance and this has helped improve the financial base.

Public Private Partnership (PPP) is the way to survive for any business unit nowadays and council efforts in this regard need to be backed up by strong policy.

Councils particularly those servicing rural areas should be built up with capacity to attract private business partners into a collaboration of income generating nature.

I do not expect for instance the council in Masaiti to struggle for business opportunities when multinational cement factories like Dangote are right in the heart of the district.

Government alone cannot fill the empty bowl of each and every council but can facilitate capacity building for managements’ to enter PPP’s and generate income for the civic institution to survive.