Haiti - Port-au-Prince : Mayor Chevry wants to significantly increase the rate of recovery of taxes
Although the tax revenues of the Commune of Port-au-Prince have more than doubled in one year, since the installation of the new Municipal Council led by the Mayor Youri Chevry, to amount to 397 million Gourdes (2017) against 180 million the previous year, Mayor Chevry is far from satisfied, while only 35% of some 20,000 taxpayers in the commune assume their civic duty and pay their rental tax.
That is why the mayor has taken the initiative to revitalize its tax resources through a private-public partnership with a consortium of American firms (GenGlobe consultants, Greenfield Advisors and GSA Corporation) led by Greenfield Advisors, aiming among other things to identify built properties in the commune and provide the City of Port-au-Prince with financial and technical means to make it autonomous. Mayor Chevry recalls that the principle of communal autonomy is enshrined in several legal provisions (decree and laws) notably in the Constitution in Article 66 which states "The Commune has the administrative and financial autonomy [...]"
However, as Mayor Chevry points out, in order to achieve this financial autonomy and provide quality local services to the population of the commune, it is not only necessary to have their own financial resources but also new sources of funding, which will imply on the one hand, a very significant increase in the rate of collection of taxes by the use of new technologies and, on the other hand, by broadening the tax base.
Youri Chevry invites international donors to work with communities, reminding them that Haiti's future lies in the development of cities.
