Eight months after the Bay of Plenty Regional Council began collecting its own rates, more than $3 million remains outstanding.

However, the council has secured nearly $79m in rates despite describing its efforts at collecting “in-house” as “complex and challenging”.

The council’s Monitoring and Operations Committee is due to meet on Tuesday, where it will be updated on the collection of its rates.

From July 1, 2022, the regional council changed how it collected its rates as a way to raise its public profile. It was also thought to create greater independence from the timeframes and processes set by other councils. Previously, the council relied on other territorial authorities such as Tauranga City Council and Rotorua Lakes Council to collect the rates on its behalf.

The decision to change was made in October 2020, and the regional council signalled its plans to change the way it collected rates in 2021. It came into force last year. The regional council established an in-house collection service, with a payment deadline of October 20, 2022.

By that time, the regional council had $43m in outstanding rates, with just $20m of rates already paid and another $19m of payments set up via direct debit.

In a report for the committee meeting, regional council special projects manager Annabel Chappell said a total of $70.8m in rates had been collected, with another $8.1m committed. There were still $3.06m in rates not yet collected.

The Regional House at Bay of Plenty Regional Council's offices on Elizabeth St.

Of the total revenue collected already, $62.4m was paid as of the due date. There were 27,867 penalty letters sent out.

The regional council allowed a grace period until October 31, 2022, and anyone who paid after this date could expect a 10 per cent penalty on their bill. Up to three notices would be sent to each outstanding customer. Any payments not paid by June 30, 2023 could expect collection action.

However, Chappell said in the report the project had largely been a success because of increased public awareness, and the new collection process was expected to result in more community connections, feedback, and engagement.

“Collecting rates in-house has a positive effect on social and economic wellbeing. The economic benefit of the in-house collection includes less cost to ratepayers as internal costs are lower than paying other organisations a commission to collect revenue on our behalf.

“Positive social benefits include the community having more awareness about the work that we do and engaging with us more, the public receiving an improved customer experience and equity across the region, as Council will have control over rating policies and be able to apply a more consistent and holistic view of the Bay of Plenty community.”

It has also provided transparency of services and direct control over the rating system, rates information and all related processes, she said.

The projected saving over a 10-year period was expected to be $7.1m compared to the previous model. That did not include an estimated improved cash flow of about $400,000 of additional interest revenue, Chappell said.

However, implementation of the new collection process was “complex and challenging”.

 “To manage a project of this scale, eight workstreams - involving up to 70 council staff in varying capacities - were involved in the project that delivered on time and within budget, and generated significant efficiency savings.”

Chappell identified “several system enhancements” regarding the technology used to make things more efficient in the long-term, and improvements to the payment process would also help “mature our rates collection service”.

Previously, Papamoa Residents and Ratepayers’ Association chairman Philip Brown told the Bay of Plenty Times the separate regional council rates bill came as a surprise for some.

Brown said people believed they had already paid their regional rates when they paid their Tauranga City Council bills, which were due in August. Some were “shocked” and not prepared, he said.

Progress on improvements to the regional council’s rates collected was expected to be presented to the next committee meeting.

Regional council rates help pay for work committed to in the council’s Long Term Plan or Annual Plan such as funding public transport, removing and managing pests in the area and carrying out water quality testing.