Lagos Govt To Reverse Land Use Charge – Commissioner

The Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Rabiu Oluwo made this known on Wednesday, during the 2020 Ministerial Press Briefing in Lagos to mark the first year in office of Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, NAN reports.

Oluwo said that the state government had to review the increase in land use charge assessment in order to accommodate the agitations of residents and to reduce the financial pressure on citizens as it related to LUC.

According to the commissioner, the intention of the state government was to keep economic activities of the state going.

He said, “As we all know, in 2018 there was an increase in LUC rate and at the same time a revaluation of properties; this twin-shock had a sporadic increase in LUC assessment.

”This reform, which will be revealed soon will, among other things, reverse the rate to pre-2018 rate.

“This was done without causing any untold hardship that would further aggravate the present financial hardship confronting all sectors of the state’s economy.

“The pre-2018 charges which will be put into effect soon will reflect current realities to reduce the burden on citizens.

”The reform also considered a flexible land use charge payment and efficient customer service management to ensure prompt issue resolution.”

Oluwo further explained that the review was made flexible enough to reduce the bureaucracy in the state procurement process and also accommodate small businesses in accordance with the Procurement Law and Guidelines.

He said that amongst initiatives put in place in the last one year in the area of revenue optimization was the deployment of an e-tax platform for tax operations.

The commissioner also noted that the state achieved 106 percent performance in the first quarter of the year revenue as against budget.

However, he said that the twin shock of the coronavirus pandemic and the dwindling oil prices which had affected the state revenue triggered the review of the year’s budget.