The DUP has urged Stormont's former Finance Minister to explain the "rationale" for maintaining a rates exemption for student apartment blocks which is costing the public purse around £4million annually in lost revenue.
Former Economy Minister Gordon Lyons, the DUP's finance spokesperson, said he would be seeking more information from the Department of Finance.
It comes after an SDLP North Belfast councillor said an unresolved "loophole" means some purpose-built student accommodation blocks do not pay rates.
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Carl Whyte, who is seeking a meeting with Stormont officials to raise concerns, said removing the rates exemption in Belfast alone would be worth an estimated £4million a year.
It applies to halls of residence managed by Queen's and Ulster universities as well as some private sector student accommodation, the Department of Finance said.
The department proposed scrapping the exemption from 2018 but it said Stormont instability and the Covid-19 pandemic meant "it has not been possible to take this further forward".
Removing the exemption had been proposed in 2016 by Sinn Féin's Máirtín Ó Muilleoir when he was Finance Minister before the Executive collapsed for three years following the RHI scandal.
Sinn Féin again held the finance portfolio when Stormont was restored in 2020, with Conor Murphy acting as Finance Minister until power-sharing collapsed last year over Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol.
The DUP's Mr Lyons said he would be making enquiries about the rates exemption.
He said: "I am meeting the Department of Finance in the coming days and will certainly be asking questions about this and seeking further information.
"The former Finance Minister Conor Murphy should also make a full statement on the issue so we can hear the rationale for the approach he took.
"Of course this would be the same Finance Minister who's draft budget was rejected by all parties except his own."
A Sinn Fein spokesperson said: “Rates reform was delayed during the last mandate as Land Property Service stepped up to deliver substantial grant support to businesses failed by the Department for the Economy and Invest NI.
“LPS also carried out Reval 2023 to update the valuations of all businesses.
“Lifting this particular rates exemption would require legislative change and the DUP’s boycott of the Executive has prevented any department from bringing forward legislation from last February.”
The SDLP's Mr Whyte said: "While Belfast ratepayers suffer due to the repeated failure to collect bins, waste collection costs at these multi-million-pound purpose-built student accommodation schemes are in effect being subsidised by these same ratepayers.
"Added to that is the £4million annual rates not collected from student residential accommodation due to exemptions for purpose-built accommodation as well as those at Queen's University."
The Department of Finance said its 2016 rates review proposed discontinuing the full rates exemption for university-managed halls of residence from 2018 "to ensure consistent treatment across the student housing sector".
A spokeswoman said: "However, with the collapse of the Executive in 2017, the Covid pandemic requiring other rating policies to be prioritised in 2020 and 2021, and the absence of a functioning Assembly since March 2022, it has not been possible to take this further forward."
The department said the exemption applies to university halls of residence and private sector student accommodation "if the allocation of the accommodation is managed by the universities and it is provided for persons in education or training who satisfy certain conditions".
It added: "A small number of the private sector student accommodation developments in Belfast city centre meet these conditions and are, therefore, exempt from rates under the current legislation.
"However, many of the newer private sector student type accommodation blocks in Belfast do not meet the exemption criteria and are fully rateable."
It said there is a "legal requirement on the universities to pass through the benefit of rates exemption in the form of lower accommodation charges to students".
A Queen's spokeswoman said the rates exemption means prices charged for university-owned accommodation are on average 25% lower than similar private accommodation in Belfast.
She added: "Queen’s has seen a significant increase in demand as a result of the value it provides. University accommodation operates on a self-funding basis with all returns being used to offset the operational costs, including a significant increase in utilities, which have not been passed onto students."
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