Kabale council reintroduces street parking fees

Authorities in Kabale Municipality have reintroduced street parking fees to generate more revenue.
The municipality mayor, Mr Byamugisha Sentaro, on Monday said they had started charging street parking fees four years ago but had failed in implementing it because of lack of bylaws governing the process.

“Recently, the Solicitor General approved the bylaws on collecting street parking fees that were passed by the Kabale Municipal Council. We placed adverts in the media and the procurement committee awarded the contract to the best-evaluated bidder. The driver of every vehicle that parks on a street in Kabale town must pay Shs500 and anyone that defaults pays a Shs20,000 fine,” Mr Byamugisha said.

He said he expects the council to collect Shs36m per year from Mukata Street Parking and Management Company that was contracted last year to collect street parking fees in the town.
He added that the fees will help the council fill the financial shortfalls they have been experiencing especially after the government reduced the road fund from Shs1b to Shs750m per year.

“We used to get about Shs500m per year from bus/taxi park tenders and when this was stopped by the government, we were left with limited sources of local revenue. We are optimistic that the introduction of street parking fees will fill the existing funding gaps,” Mr Byamugisha added.
He appealed to the technical staff to be vigilant in tax collection so as to attain the council target of raising at least Shs2b for 2022/2023 financial year. 
The manager of Mukata street parking, Mr Pypius Pilot Arineitwe, said his company had provided employment to dozens of youth and  was  also aiding drivers to respect driving guidelines.