Bug or oversight, it’s a headache for all concerned in Vélez-Málaga.
A total of 1,639 people in Vélez-Málaga have had an ’embargo’ placed on their current accounts for the non-payment of the municipal rubbish collection tax for 2005 and a further 1,275 cases are pending. All very strange since the Council abolished the tax and is, in fact, in the process of refunding all payments made since 2000.
The mayor, Francisco Delgado, has written to the provincial Tax Office asking them to cancel the embargo orders.
According to the mayor, it’s a bug in the computer that seems to have caused the situation, a problem not only for the residents who have had their accounts seized, but also for the Council who will be charged a commission by the Tax Office on all payments collected.
According to the Tax Office, the problem stems from an oversight by the Council in not submitting full and specific details relating to the changes in the system in the municipality.
Bug or oversight, it means that a resident has his or her bank account seized, the money due for the rubbish tax is taken out, the Council then receives that payment, less some hefty commissions, and then the Council has to refund the full amount to the resident. Must make sense to someone!!