The figure was revealed by Finance Minister Peter Robinson following a question from Strangford DUP MLA Simon Hamilton.

Mr Robinson said that ratepayers owed the 28 councils a total of £148,321,855 but the final total of arrears for the year would not be calculated until May.

The amount owed to each local authority generally reflected the density of population in each council area.

The largest amount owed was by Belfast residents who have held on to £46 million, almost a third of the total.

Just under £41 million of the rate debt was carried over from last year, with Belfast again the biggest offender with nearly £14 million owed.

Mr Hamilton’s local authority area of Ards was one of the councils at the lower end of the scale with just under £5 million in unpaid rates bills oustanding.

He said it seemed to be a problem right across the board and said the Rates Collection Agency, which is now part of the Land and Property Services, needs to do more to recoup the unpaid bills.

The DUP MLA said the fact that the amounts owed in each area generally related to the population, indicating that it was a problem with the central administration of the system.

“This is a huge amount of money that could be put into frontline services both at a central and local levels.

“There is a lot to be sorted out as this is not an insubstantial amount of money when it comes to Northern Ireland’s budget.

“I know they have been having computer problems at the agency but that is no excuse in the long-term and they need to be working hard to get this amount down.”

The LPS said there were a number of reasons for the high amount of money owed, including persistent poor payers who do not pay until threatened with recovery action through the courts.

It also said there was some debt regarding the introduction of vacant rating of non-domestic properties where it has not yet been possible to identify the owners.

It said computer system difficulties last year meant it could not take recovery action through the courts but warned that all outstanding rates are being pursued.

A spokesman said: “LPS is totally committed to tackling rate arrears in a resolute, consistent and equitable fashion.

“Debts are written off only in cases where LPS has exhausted all possible rate recovery options and the debt is therefore deemed as irrecoverable.”