MINISTER of Local Government and Community Development Noel Arscott is appealing to Jamaicans to pay over the $2.8 billion in outstanding property taxes for the current fiscal year.

This will ensure that the target of $7.26 billion for the financial year is met, the minister said.

“I am making a special appeal for this gap to be filled. The reality is that the money we collect from the citizens of Jamaica will be returned to them in the form of services,” Arscott stated last Thursday, at the press launch of Local Government and Community Month 2014, at the ministry’s Hagley Park Road headquarters, in St Andrew.

The minister said that the aim is to meet the target, which is the same as last year, and stressed that the collection of all property taxes will enable the Government to deliver the expected level of service at the local level.

Turning to another area of service delivery, he informed that the proposal for a programme to provide street lights that will save the country some $1 billion annually is with the Ministry of Finance and Planning for approval. The programme will see street lights being retrofitted with more efficient LED lights, which can result in immediate savings of 60 to 70 per cent.

Meanwhile, Arscott said that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller will shortly announce details regarding the maintenance of infirmaries and housing for the indigent, as well as for the management of homeless persons.

He said that as the agency with primary responsibility for that area, the Board of Supervision is collaborating with the National

Housing Trust and local authorities to develop this comprehensive, multimillion-dollar programme.