Here's how much metro tariffs are set to rise in Johannesburg

Johannesburg has announced plans for above-inflation increases in its tariffs.

Member of the mayoral committee (MMC) for finance Funzela Ngobeni this week tabled these proposed tariff increases:

•  13.07% for electricity across all categories of customers
•  9.9% for water
•  5.5% for property rates
•  7% for refuse removal.

The city intends "to ensure that service delivery reaches the furthest corners" of the metro and will continue to provide relief to those in need through its rebates programme.

To mitigate these increases, the city will be giving households without any formal income 15 kilolitres of free water a month and 150 kilowatt hours of electricity, said Ngobeni. 

Lower levels of allocations will range between 10 kilolitres of free water a month and 12 kilolitres of water provided without charge to other vulnerable city residents.

Meanwhile, Ngobeni said the city's billing backlog has been reduced from the previous 100,000 to the current 9,000 as at April 2019. "I am the first to admit that there is a lot of work still to be done in addressing all problems within our billing value chain. I am pleased to say that we have made significant strides in this regard," he said.

The city's budget for 2019/2020​ is R64.5bn.

Departments getting the largest slices of the 2019 operating budget include Joburg Water (R11.5bn); the good governance cluster (R10.6bn); human and social development (R9.5bn); economic growth cluster (R5.7bn); public safety (R5.5bn); group finance (R5.4bn); environment and infrastructure (R2.5bn).