The International Monetary Fund has come out clearly in support of the action of the Freetown City Council in reforming the property tax system in the metropolis, that would see the generation of more revenue to capacitate the Council in order to implement most of its programmes under its purview. The IMF’s position was made clear in a Press Release it issued titled, “Views on Freetown City Council’s Property Tax” .
The International Monetary Fund stated that “ we fully support this reform that appears to be in line with best regional practice. Whiles there is always room for improvement, we believe this reform could bring Freetown in line with other towns in the country and region in improving the property tax system.” The IMF furthered that there is no reason for the postponement of the new tax regime or system within the context of the current COVID-19 and furthered that on the contrary they support the implementation of the new system that allows to increase property taxes on high-end properties whiles supporting the most vulnerable and those most affected by the crisis.
Finally, the IMF maintained that postponing or suspending the reform could be counter-productive, eroding tax compliance and the overall trust in the reform agenda.
It could be recalled that the Freetown City Council under Her Worship the Mayor, Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, recently conducted a survey of all properties in the city, with was DFID funded project and other institutions against the backdrop of introducing a reform property tax system in Freetown.

Assessments of properties were timely conducted and rates that property owners must be paying annually determined based on the value of such properties. What is glaring is that the rates of some properties will go up and others will definitely go down as opposed to the high rates the latter have been paying before.
The Mayor has justified the transition based on the fact that the FCC must be able to generate its own revenue to discharge some of its functions and pay certain members of staff. She has pointed out that allocations from the central Government do not come handy .
However, she has come under bashing accusing her of increasing property tax and the residents must bare the brunt which in actual fact is not the case. Nonetheless, she is very optimistic that Freetownians will understand and comply.
In random interviews conducted by the Owl Press to gauge the views of residents about this new development many commended the Mayor for coming up with the initiative. They stated further that they are highly satisfied with the performance of Mayor Aki-Sawyer since she took up office making reference to the frequent cleaning of the city, laying emphasis on the planting of trees and other initiatives that they said have been successfully rolled out under her watch.