Edo State Government is to commence the enforcement of the Land Use Charge law in a couple of days or weeks ahead according to the letter and spirit of the law.
This was disclosed by the Edo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Hon. Louis Odion while briefing newsmen on the resolutions reached at the State Executive Council meeting held in Benin City yesterday.
“Land Use Charge law was promulgated two years ago. Since 2012 it has been the responsibility of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to serve notices on house owners and users of land but we observed that the level of compliance has been very low,” the commissioner said.
According to Hon. Louis Odion, “Our challenges and obligations are mounting; meanwhile, allocation of revenue from Abuja is dwindling. So it has become imperative for us to deepen our tax collection effort.”
Also speaking on outcome of the state Executive Council meeting, the Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Arch Francis Evbuomwan said “Basically, the land use charge is a land-based law that encompasses three different laws which are tenement rate, property tax and ground rent. The law stipulates that once the demand notice has been served on any premises, either the owner or occupier of that premises of that property will no longer be eligible for tenement rate from the local government because this land use charge is a cooperation or collaboration with the 18 Local Government Areas in the state.”
According to Hon. Evbuomwan, “Notices started coming out as far back as last year and, however, while we have had some level of compliance, the level of compliance has not been up to the level expected. It is towards this regard that the state executive council has decided to go on full enforcement. Several owners of property have been charged to court and we are awaiting court orders to move against those properties to recover the land use tax.”
He explained further: “However, the state Executive Council has also decided to offer another window of opportunity for other members of the public and citizens of the state to take the advantage to enable them meet their tax obligation as follows; payment of the demand notice presented to your premises within 30 days will now attract a waiver of penalties applicable to that property.”
“If you receive a demand notice and you pay within 30 days of the date of the demand notice, various penalties applied will be waived. For property that does not have penalties applied on them, if you receive demand notice, state government will accept payment less of 10 percent discount as full and final payment. Let it be clear that once the court judgment starts coming out more defaulters would be enrolled in the court process to enable government recover its taxes,” he said.
Also speaking, the Chairman of Edo State Internal Revenue Service (EIRS) Oseni Elamah who identified the mode and ease of payment as very important, said “At the back of the demand notice, it is stated clearly the bank account, the bank account number and account code for which payment will be made,” stressing that it was a graduation of the period of time the public is expected to pay and that would become fully effective for collection.
He pleaded with members of the public not to pay cash to anybody whether government official or anybody in whatever guise but that they should go to the bank and pay directly, adding that if they were unable to go the bank, they could approach any of the EIRS offices across the state and where the POS machine are available so that they could use their Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards.
The EIRS Chairman also told the public that in the interim, the EIRS is also running a revenue scratch card which, hopefully, will become operational before the end of this month.
“The total amount of the Land Use charge that is being charged is a very minimal amount compared to any other taxes that you think about,” he said.
