Inspection of buildings and land will be conducted by the Blantyre City Council, in an effort to assess how much these properties are worth. BCC director of commerce, industry and trade Dennis Chinseu revealed that the initiative will be called quinqennial valuation roll, starts today and is budgeted at K1.45 billion.

According to Chinseru, Section 65 of the Local Government Act (1998) empowers the council to produce a valuation roll every five years, but it conducted the last evaluation in 2005 due to lack of money. Chinseu said this means the calculation of property rates in the city is based on values captured in 2005.

The council has engaged The Polytechnic, a constituent college of the University of Malawi, and Mpico plc to undertake the exercise as one of the ways to broaden collection rates. “We are anticipating to collect about K5 billion during this new financial year.” said Chinseu.