RATING INACCURACIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 143, 7 September 1927, Page 13

RATING INACCURACIES

ACCOUNTANT’S DISCOVERIES COUNCIL OVER-CHARGES (Special to THE SUN.) CHRISTOHURCH, Tuesday. How many of the thousands of rate demands dispatched by the Christchurch City Council to ratepayers of the city are incorrectly computed ? This pertinent inquiry is made because accountants have found, in checking the demand?, that there has been overcharging, and in some instances undercharging. A member of one firm of accountants expressed amazement at the number of inaccuracies disclosed. Some, he said, show an overcharge cf many shillings. In ojie instance a mart was charged double on his water rate, the rate being computed for a dwelling instead of for a business building. Another ratepayer, in one of the three demands sent him, found to his great joy that lie was being charged 5s too little, so he checked the other two and discovered that he had been overcharged 7s on one water-rate and 5d on the other. Two other demands were found to be about 14s out. Another man checked his demand, and it was subsequently amended so that he pays 6s 2d less than he would have paid if it had not been checked. Mr. J. K. MacDonald, a rate collector, told a SUN reporter to-day that he discovered in checking the rate books that water rates were computed at £1 12s per cent, instead of at £1 3s per cent. Credit, however, will be given by the council in every instance where an overcharge has been made.