Ambode rises in defence of widely criticised new Lagos land use charge law

Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, has risen in defence of the widely criticised land use charge law recently assented to by him.

According to the new law, a property solely occupied by an owner for residential purpose will be charged at a rate of 0.076 percent per annum.

A property occupied by the owner and tenant(s) or third parties will be charged 0.256 percent per annum, while an investment property fully occupied by tenants or third party(ies) for revenue generation will be charged at 0.76 percent per annum.

Lagos residents have not responded to the new law well, describing its provisions as burdensome and its timing as insensitive.

But speaking on Tuesday at a conference tagged, “Lagos Means Business”, Ambode said his administration did not review the charges to bring hardship on the people.

“The law was made in 2001. It provides that every five years, we should review it and also find a way to increase. 15 years after in 2017, the law has never been reviewed,” he said.

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“Now, the question is this; those who are having commercial properties, the rental income they were getting in 2002 as against the rental income they are getting in 2017, is it the same? The level of infrastructure that existed in 2002 as against what has happened in the last 15 years, are they the same?

“So, somebody comes and say we have increased by 400 percent. The question is the 400 percent of what? You were paying N10,000 before, now we say you should pay N50,000 and you are calculating and turning statistics upside down by saying it is 400 percent.

“I don’t have to come and meet you if I continue to borrow money, but we are borrowing to punish you ultimately which is not what we want because it is even the taxes you pay that would pay the interest and the principal.”

He said the state has to spend $50 billion within the next five years to bridge the infrastructure gap, which he maintains the current tax returns cannot fund, adding that only 700,000 people out of the 8 million taxable adults paid taxes.

Donald Duke, former governor of Cross River; Subomi Balogun, founder, First City Monument Bank Group; Jim Ovia, chairman of Zenith Bank; Tony Elumelu, chairman, United Bank for Africa (UBA); and Aliko Dangote, chairman, Dangote Group were some of the dignitaries who attended the event.

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