Africa-Press – Seychelles. • Plans legal action against defaulters
The Industrial Estates Authority (IEA) has collected R4.1 million out of R19 million in debt, during its one-month penalty waiver campaign in August, said a top official.
The campaign was targeting 222 debtors and during that period IEA had waived the 10% charged as penalty for late payments, if they settled their accumulated arrears in full, by August 31, 2022. Debtors were also given three notices as reminder to ensure they came forward.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday at the authority’s headquarters in the ‘Leve Debourye’ building, in Providence, chief executive Roy Collie thanked the 52 debtors who had seized this opportunity to repay their debts.
He said IEA was satisfied as the amount collected in August was the highest compared to previous months.
“However, I think the tenants could have done better, but we are conscious that some businesses are really going through a rough patch. That is why we were meeting them half-way with the waiver and we expected more of them to respond,” said Mr Collie.
IEA is now re-instating the 10% charge as penalty and Mr Collie said the authority will have no option but to take tough action against the tenants who did not come forward to benefit from the waiver and clear their arrears partly or in full.
“IEA has exhausted all means to assist them and our final option is to take legal action against them effective immediately, especially those whose arrears date back a long time ago. We have to collect all the money due to government,” he said.
He said that through legal action IEA can hold their license or terminate the lease agreement for those who are renting workshop.
“We can take them before rent board and for those who have vacated our premises, we will seek guidance from the Attorney General’s office on how best to go about legal action against them,” he said.
R15 million in debt remains to be collected and according to Mr Collie the debt goes as high as R400,000 for a single business. R2 million are owed by small businesses that are no longer renting their properties.
“They had declined our repayment plan, which is the most effective way to pay their debts, where you are not charged interest but pay by instalments. They should know that we do not have any intention of writing off their debts,” he added.
In a last ditch attempt to help those remaining 170 businesses avoid legal action, IEA is urging them to come forward and work on a repayment plan.
Meanwhile, IEA has announced that by September 12, it had already equalled last year’s total collection of R21 million. This includes both rental fees and debt repayment.
Mr Collie said the authority will definitely exceed the target.
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