Maduka Nweke

Stakeholders, including professional bodies and civil society organisations, that attended the public hearing conducted by Lagos State government on the controversial Land Use Charge (LUC)were sharply divided along their professions.

The public hearing that took place on Tuesday, March, 27 at the Lateef Jakande Auditorium, inside the Lagos State Assembly Complex, saw a lot of the stakeholders demanding total reversal of the new Lagos State LUC Law, 2018, to status quo.

Maintaining that the state government has no justification for the increment as the economy is biting hard on the masses, Mr. Fitzgerald Umah, the Chairman, Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), Lagos State chapter, urged the state government to repeal the law and return to the status quo, to help Lagosians in view of the hardship they are facing.

Chukwuka Ikwuazom, Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Lagos Branch, thanked the House for letting them air their views on the controversial law, suggesting that regulations that provide for reliefs and grand concessions are made a part of the principal law. According to him, this will inspire more confidence in the people and also avoid being altered in the process. He also appealed for more time to enable his branch to study the amended law and send in a memorandum.

Furthermore, Mr. Olurogba Orimolade, Chairman of the Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), commended the adoption of market value as the basis for determining property assessment. He also noted that a lot of ignorance has surrounded the issue of market value and reliefs as presented in the LUC Law, and advised that it should be addressed. He, however, requested that the House grants his association extra period to put up a technical report on the debated law.

Also, Chairman of Estate Surveyors and Valuers in Lagos State, Mr. Orimolade, faulted the way properties are being assessed in the state, adding that new charges are almost equivalent to the annual income of the property owners.

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A representative of National Association of Private Schools Owners Association, Mr. Joseph Idornigie, urged the government to exempt private schools from LUC. Idornigie, who noted that private schools owners were offering social services and parents were paying taxes already, said it would be double taxation if the schools should also pay taxes. While explaining some of the points, Mr. Tunde Braimoh, the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Strategy and Security, decried people’s disregard for legislative procedure and practices.

Addressing the hearing, Speaker, House of Assembly, Obasa who gave a keynote address mentioned that this will be the first time since 2003 the House will witness such an outpouring of the crowd in any bill passing process, which simply indicates that the LUC issue concerns the majority of Lagos residents.

“It has been said that the Lagos State population will increase over the next years and so the state needs to look inward for means of revenue generation as we cannot solely rely on federal allocation alone,” said Obasa, noting that “it is the contribution we make as citizens that will pave way for the future generation.”

However, the representative of the Organised Private Sector (OPS), after submitting their memorandum, recommended that assessment of properties for valuation should be carried out by professional bodies alone, and the process should carry on for about three to five years in order to give room for an accurate valuation. He further advised that empty properties should be exempted from taxation, stating that pensioners, as represented in the law, should not be limited to Lagos State pensioners alone but should cut across other retirees in the state as well. He further expressed support for government proposition on further reduction of rates as stated earlier by the Commissioner for Finance in Lagos State, Mr. Akinyemi Ashade.

Godwin Alenka, Chairman, Estate Agents Commission Association, Lagos branch, advised that government should engage estate agents in the state to ensure remittance of tax, as they are the ones closer to property owners and can hold them accountable.

Abiola Sanni, a property owner and a professor of Law of Taxation, added that valuation process should be made robust and inclusive. He advised that adequate provisions be made for the process to make it a successful one. The Association of Real Estate Developers of Lagos State, which also called for a reversal, said the masses would bear the burden if the new law was allowed to operate.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Mr. Mutairu Olumegbon, its General Secretary, asked the government to clarify whether the new charge was on the land or the property on it. “The charges are highly exorbitant to the level that it will go back to the poor masses because it is from what we collect from people that we will pay the government,” he said.