CITY finance leader Gordon Mackenzie today hit out at residents who are refusing to pay council tax after new figures revealed that a total of £14.5 million went uncollected last year.
The Lib Dem councillor said the administration has less to spend on local services because of the "unfair" attitude of thousands of people.
Last year's collection rate reached a record high, but at 92.9 per cent, that still equates to an average o
f 12,000 people who owe the council money.
It also means the total debt owed to the council since 1996 is thought to have passed £100m for the first time. Council chiefs today pledged to continue chasing the money.
Councillor Mackenzie said: "Millions are owed by people who can afford to pay but have chosen not to. This is unfair on the majority of residents who do pay and means the council has less to spend on services for the people of Edinburgh. It's only right that we make moves to recover that debt as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible."
The council's figures show that in the last financial year, ended March 31, it received £189.3m of the £203.8m due.
In the previous financial year, 2006-07, the council took in £181.8m of the £196.4m due in council tax, a collection rate of 92.56 per cent.
And since March 31, 2007, it has received a further £5m, taking the collection rate to 94.2 per cent for 2006-07.
Cllr Mackenzie said: "Our collection rates continue to improve and I'm confident that recent changes in our procedures will maintain that trend."
He said the improvements had resulted from improved and faster debt recovery, together with an increase in direct debits.
Last year alone an extra 10,000 people agreed to use direct debits to pay their council tax.
And the council hopes to bring about further improvements in the collection rate by reducing the number of stages involved in enforcement. If a payment is missed, the reminder issued will now also serve as a final notice and unless the money is paid immediately, the account will automatically be passed to sheriff officers.
Figures published yesterday by the Scottish Government showed across the country nearly £112m of council tax went uncollected last year.
Bills totalling £1,940,354 were sent out and £1,828,516 was received, a collection rate of 94.2 per cent – up from 93.8 per cent the previous year and the best for a decade.
Labour and the Tories both used the statistics to warn the SNP there was no guarantee similar collection rates could be achieved for its proposed local income tax.
Labour finance spokesman Andy Kerr said: "Levels of avoidance and evasion are likely to be greatly increased and could bring us back to the days of the poll tax where huge numbers of people were not paying any local tax."
The full article contains 500 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
