Following the new provision for the Land Use Charge (LUC) as released in August 2020, the Lagos State Government has assured Lagosians that its Reforms Law has a human face and was enacted with the welfare of the people in mind.
This is as it introduced the self-billing method for property owners in the state has been introduced.
The announcement which was contained in a statement issued by the Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Dr Rabiu Olowo while welcoming officials of the Internal Revenue Service, Federal Capital Territory Abuja also said that the new provision was remarkably different from the Land Use Charge of 2018.
Backstory
Recall that in August the Lagos state government had revoked the 2018 land use charge and reverted to the pre-2018 land use charges. This was brought together as the new provisions under the new 2020 Land Use Charge (LUC) Law. The law entails a reduction in penalties for defaults, the people exempted from the charge and forfeiture of N5.8 billion penalties among others.
People exempted from the new law include all retirees from private and public institutions in the state or any person that has attained the age of sixty (60) years and has ceased to be actively engaged in any activity or business for remuneration.
It is worthy to note that the new land use charge does not exempt Profit oriented Cemeteries and Burial Grounds as well as private Libraries. They are now required to pay the Land Use Charge.
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According to the reports and speech given, there is a 48 per cent reduction in the annual charge rates. While the owner-occupied residential property was said to be reduced from 0.076 per cent to 0.0394 per cent, the industrial premises of manufacturing concerns from 0.256 per cent to 0.132 per cent; and residential property/private school (owner and third party, from 0.256 per cent to 0.132 per cent.
The commercial property (used by the occupier for business purposes) was also reduced from 0.76 per cent to 0.394 per cent; and vacant properties and open empty land, from 0.076 per cent to 0.0394 per cent.
While the annual charge rate for agricultural land was reduced by 87 per cent from 0.076 per cent to 0.01 per cent. These reductions were stated by the Lagos state commissioner.
Why the new provision of the Land use Charge
Olowo made it known that the need for the Act to be people-friendly informed the various provisions such as the 40% general relief, a waiver for pensioners, and discount on early payments among others.
He also stated that there was a need for increased internally generated revenue at all tiers of government, through effective and innovative taxes in order to shore up the dwindling revenue of the government.
“There is an urgent need to improve the amount of revenue generated internally to provide the government with the much-needed revenue to meet the huge infrastructural deficit. The Land Use Charge Law, which is a property tax, will help in bridging the revenue gap even as it is designed to be people-friendly.’’ Olowo’s words.
The commissioner gave advantages of the new Land use charge to include the elimination of incidents of multiple taxations and the boosting of revenue generation and consolidation through efficient identification of the property. He went on to say the new provision would help to effectively collate data and information on land property in Lagos State.
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I have not received my land use charge; please advise what to do. I have called a series of numbers (no response) and sent an email to luc@lagosstate.gov.ng still no response.
Hello Chris, Usually, the Land Use Charge is shared from area to area by the officials. If you have not gotten, it may mean that they have not been to your area yet.