Inside the BRT, along the way and even in the markets places, if you listen carefully, you will find out that the theme of most of the discussions in Lagos is the land use charge.

The Lagos land use charge has been making waves since last month. Even this morning, over 50 Policemen led by the DCP Operation laid siege to the office of the Nigeria Bar Association, Lagos State Chapter. They were waiting anxiously to arrest the Chairman of the Association.

This is connected to the Association’s resolve to protest against the state government over the land use charge during the visit of the President.

But the truth is the land use charge has been generating a lot of controversies.

Apart this Association, the opposition, various human right groups, the private sector, real estate professionals and even the masses have all at one point voiced out their reservations.

It seems everyone except the governments are against this law. But the question is; is this land use charge really oppressive?

That is all for you to decide.

High payable amount

When compared to the old charge, the increments are purely obnoxious.

Going by the new law, property owners in Lagos are required to pay 0.394 percent of the value of their property for commercial properties, 0.132 percent for industrial properties. Residential properties occupied by the owner attract a rate of 0.0394 percent, while those occupied by the owner and tenants attracts 0.132 percent. Those occupied by talents alone are treated purely as commercial properties.

These 0.394, 0.132 and 0.0394 percents might appear small on paper, but it is not when you make use of your calculator. When you also understand that the burden of this payment will be on you annually, for the rest of your life, as long as your property stands, then you will realize that those percents are not just small.

In case you don't know, the new land use charge is a 400 percent increment from the previous one. It is also a 1,600 percent increase in motor rates and taxes, 2000 percent increase in court rates and 68,000 percent increase in boreholes taxes.

These increases are enough to make anyone insane.

Transfer of liability to tenants

The liability is not just on the landlord, but also on you as a tenant.

I guess you don’t even know this.

Anyway, I don’t blame you. The thinking has been that it is the property owners that will bear the cost of the tax. But the truth is, it is not so. A careful study of the law shows that this liability can also be transferred to a tenant. But this happens under special circumstance.

According to this law, where the owner is not in possession of the property, the LUC law authorizes the collecting authority to appoint the occupier, who is usually the tenant, to be assessed with and pay for the tax; the tenant is in turn authorized by the law to offset such a payment from monies that may be due from the tenant to the owner of the property.

The phrase “Where the owner is not in possession of the property” is purely ambiguous. In case you don’t understand what this means. It can be interpreted as “in events the property owner is not available to be assessed, the law will authorise the collecting authority to appoint the occupier to be assessed and then pay for the tax”.

You need to understand you don’t even have a choice here. The law permits the collecting authority to appoint an occupier to bear the liability.

Provision for instalment

Property owners can now pay according to their ability.

Initially, they were no provision for instalments. All property owners were expected to pay in full once they receive their bill. But in the new land use charge announced by the Governor recently, this will not applicable again. This is thoughtfulness on the part of the Governor. But the truth is, it was the outcry from the masses that led the State Executive Council to meet for this.

The reduced land use charge is a Greek gift

The Governor is smart. The reduced land use charge isn’t backed by law.

As a result of the protests that trailed the new Lagos land use charge, the government announced some measures to lessen the burden of payment on the masses.

Some of the measures the government announced were 50 percent discount for commercial property owners and 25 percent discount for private property owners. Again properties occupied by the owners will enjoy 15% discount while all the reliefs and other taxes will remain as stipulated by the law.

But the question should be, does the Governor have the power to reduce a rate that had been set by an act of the House Assembly?

The truth is, for the Governor to make this reduction permanent, then the law needs to be amended by the House of Assembly.

But if the Governor doesn’t have this intention, then he just offered us a Greek gift.

He might have the discretion to reduce the tax, but he doesn’t have the right to do that for a long time. So the question again is, how long does he intend to exercise this discretion?

I don’t know. But I think it will be better if the Governor returns the law to the House of Assembly for an amendment.

No penalty for late payment

Yes, you can now delay payment until you are ready.

I don’t know if you can stretch this as long as you want. But the truth is the penalty for late payment had been waived. This waiver was introduced to provide relief to the taxpayers.

This doesn’t mean you should intentionally withhold your tax payment. This is because it is not just a duty to the State, but also an obligation to yourself. This is because the more Lagos works, the happier you would be.

Alpha Beta

Alpha Beta is a good company, no doubt. But…

Anyway, I don’t want to talk too much on this. But does the government even know that as of June 2011, there were over 1.2 million houses in Lagos?

I guess they do. Ths is because they were the one that released that figure. So how do they even expect just one company to collect all these charges effectively in 2018?

There are a lot of good companies in Lagos that can help out. But why the government decided to shut them out is what I don’t understand. The funniest thing is that they even went to the extent of according the company a statutory recognition. This will turn them into a monopolist, and we all know this is not good for our economy.

The government has the right to raise funds through any legitimate means. This is important for them to meet their ever-increasing obligations. But this will become anti-people if the masses are not at the centre of whatever they are thinking about.

I guess by now you have already made your decision, so what do you think?

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