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\u00a0The Ondo state government has chosen to follow closely the footsteps of Lagos State, by reviewing its land use charge in the state.<\/p>\n\u00a0The Ondo state government has chosen to follow closely the footsteps of Lagos State, by reviewing its land use charge in the state.<\/p>\n
The state said there would be an amnesty for those who have not been paying, but implementation would commence as soon as inputs were received from those concerned.<\/p>\n
The Lagos State government has been at loggerheads with residents over an increase in land use charges in the state.<\/p>\n
After several protests and marches, the Akinwumi Ambode-led government soft-pedalled and reduced the charges. However, activists insist only a reversal would suffice.<\/p>\n
The Ondo State Government is however, treading with caution, choosing to hold meetings with property owners before introducing the new law.<\/p>\n
It said the meeting was aimed at creating awareness on the administration of the law.<\/p>\n
Meeting with local government administrators, top bureaucrats and political office holders, on Thursday in Akure, government officials said the state intended to formulate a workable template for its smooth implementation.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the meeting, the Commissioner for Finance, Wale Akinterinwa, described the land use charge law as a veritable and legal revenue generation means for the government.<\/p>\n
He said the government was prepared to drive the programme with inputs from all through the engagements.<\/p>\n
Mr. Akinterinwa solicited support to help create effective awareness among the people so that the \u201cgood intention of the government would not be misinterpreted\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the government would continue to hold more consultations until there was an acceptable template for all.<\/p>\n
The chairman of the Ondo State Board of Internal Revenue, Tolu Adegbie, said the adminstration of the law would begin as soon as the proposal for implementation was approved by the Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you are aware, prior to now, tenement rate used to be collected by the local government for all houses in the state. But a law was passed in 2014 cancelling that, that law is a land use charge law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came into office, I realised that the law has not been followed. You still have local government collecting tenement rate, members of the board also collecting land use, they are fighting on the road and there are issues here and there<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I decided it\u2019s high time we had a stakeholder\u2019s meeting, let the local government chairmen come, let the state board of internal revenue who have been trying to collect come, let representatives of the various commissioners in the state come, let\u2019s all come together and harmonise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second point is, let us review the law, the law today is the land use charge law of 2014. It has not been reviewed or amended. Which was why we spent 45 minutes reading the law so everyone knows what the law is today and we have done that. And we took comments from everybody and that\u2019s why we are here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next steps are clear, we will take back the feedback we have gotten from this stakeholders engagement, back to Mr Governor especially in determining the rates for the low base areas. If you heard from the room, the comments across board is that the N2000 is a bit stiff, so we will review that. Also we heard that N7000 is a bit too low for the big houses, we will review that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut ultimately, what we want right now is inclusion, we are not using a 100 per cent accessed value yet.<\/p>\n
This is an amnesty period, so many people have not been paying land use charge or tenement rate in all those houses in Akure, Ondo, Ikare and all over. So we are saying, let\u2019s give amnesty period for previous years and for 2017 and 2018 alone, let\u2019s pay.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we will go back with all the feedback to Mr. Governor through the commissioner of lands and finance. Whatever the approval is, we will come back and start the sensitisation on it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0The Ondo state government has chosen to follow closely the footsteps of Lagos State, by reviewing its land use charge in the state. The state said there would be an amnesty for those who have not been paying, but implementation would commence as soon as inputs were received from those concerned. The Lagos State government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"news-category":[318],"class_list":["post-9036","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news-category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n