Labasa Town Council loses $200K annually after licence suspension

The Labasa Town Council has admitted losing around $200,000 in revenue annually since the suspension of business licences in August 2020.

This decision has left the northern municipality struggling to recover one of its key income streams.  

The revelation came as the council appeared before the Standing Committee on Social Affairs to discuss its 2018 Annual Report last week.  

Labasa Town Council chief executive officer Irfaan Ali told the committee that the business license fee, previously a major source of income alongside town rates and market fees was removed during the COVID-19 period.

As a result, this significantly reduced the council’s financial capacity.  

“We have requested the reinstatement of business licences, but we have not gotten any update on this,” he said.  

Opposition Member of Parliament and also committee member, Praveen Bala said the issue was not unique to Labasa.

He said other municipal councils across the country had also been hit by the removal of business licensing.

“All councils have lost that type of revenue,” Mr Bala said.  

“That was only brought up because of COVID-19. We want to know what the stand of the council is now,” he asked.  

Mr Bala also challenged the council’s slow improvement in collecting town rates, noting that total revenue rose only slightly from $1.1 million in 2018 to $1.3 million in 2024–2025, despite seven years of urban and commercial expansion.  

“There’s not much difference,” he said. “There must have been new businesses and rate increases, so why is there so little improvement in your main source of revenue?” he asked.  

In response, Mr Ali said rate valuations were still based on 2017 property assessments, and many plots remained vacant, which limited garbage and service fees. The council he said had around $2 million in outstanding arrears, though Mr Ali claimed current collections remain at about 80 per cent.  

Committee member Jone Usamate encouraged the council to present trend data in future reports to help Parliament and the public track performance over time.  

“It helps when we can see the trend, not just a single-year figure,” he said.  

The committee has urged the Labasa Town Council to improve its collection systems and continue dialogue with the Local Government Ministry to restore lost business licence revenue. 

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