• Levels of trade in markets have reduced.
• Revenue collection from the markets and bus stations has drastically reduced.
• The Council is over stressed and struggling to meet people’s expectations.

Luanshya Municipal Council says its revenue collection has been badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Council Public Relations Officer Gideon Thole said this is due to reduced levels of trade in markets.
Mr. Thole stated that as a result, what the user fees the Council is collecting from markets and bus stations has drastically gone down.
He however said the local authority has been engaging the residents and trade associations for market traders, vendors and also bus and taxi operators who have been cooperating, thereby posting a bit of improvement in user fees.
“Luanshya Municipal Council’s revenue collection has been terribly affected by Covid-19 pandemic, in that the levels of trade in markets have reduced. And as a result, what we are collecting as a local authority in terms of user fees from the markets and bus stations have drastically reduced,” Mr. Thole stated.
“But on our part as local authority we have also tried to engage the residents and trade associations for market traders, vendors and also the bus and taxi operators who have been cooperating of late and as a result, we have seen an improvement. At some point our revenue collections were drastically low but with the engagement of these stakeholders they started improving and also they are really appreciating what we are doing. So we have tried also on our part, we have upped the game to make sure that we try to redeem ourselves by delivering better services.”
And Mr. Thole said the council has made notable strides in amount of services and developmental projects being delivered this year but that the local authority is hoping the pandemic will end soon so that the revenue base can improve.
“So really the amount of services and projects that the council has embarked on or rolled out this year has really improved but our revenue collection could be better and we are hoping that the Covid-19 pandemic will end by the end of this year and our revenue base will improve. Otherwise, we are really over stressed as a local authority and we are struggling to meet the expectations of the people in terms of service delivery,” he lamented.