Edo
State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has said that low income earners in the state
will not pay the Land Use Charge.
The
governor, who spoke on Thursday, said palaces of traditional rulers and places
of worship would be exempted from paying the Land Use Charge.
Civil
society groups and some residents had on Monday protested against the property
taxation law, a policy which they claimed would further impoverish the poor.
But
Oshiomhole, who spoke in Benin during a town hall meeting to mark his seventh
year in office, explained that the law, which was introduced in 2012, was aimed
at boosting the Internally Generated Revenue of the state and using it to
improve the lot of the masses.
He
also said that he hoped to bequeath a strong financial base to his successor.
The
governor said, “Let me assure you that over the next 12 months, we will
continue to complete the projects that we have already started. We will start
new ones that we need to start; we will re-engineer the finances of the state.
We will enforce the collection of the Land Use Charge in the areas that are
covered.
“And
I would like to explain that we will never, even in the name of revenue drive,
collect Land Use Charge from high density areas; Land Use Charge is restricted
to low density areas.”
He
continued, “If you occupy 10,000 square-metre residence, for God’s sake, you
have to pay the Land Use Charge. We cannot accept a situation where one man
would own 200 houses, and 100 of such houses are locked up; you are not paying
taxes (but) a poor man with two wives and 40 children live in a bungalow at
Upper Sakponba. Let me assure our people, we will not collect Land Use Charge
from poor family houses.”
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