IN the wake of criticism trailing the Land Use Charge policy in Lagos State, estate surveyors have urged the authorities to review and harmonise contentious areas in the policy to make it more acceptable to the citizens.The surveyors under the aegis of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Estate Agency Faculty, alleged that council officers still issue tenement rate notices to areas already billed for land use charges, and other irregularities exist, which are inimical to the growth of the housing industry.Members of the group who made their submission at the a one-day interactive session with senior officials of the Lagos State Land Use Charge Office, also stressed that high taxes for well maintained properties is a punishment to the owner and also sought to know who is responsible for ground charges between landlords and tenants.In response, the Managing Director of the office, Mr. Dele Ibrahim, stated that there had been misconceptions about the land use charge, explaining that the reasons for its introduction was to consolidate all tenement rates and property tax levies to reduce multiplicity of taxes.He stated that the Land Use Charge policy is a product of consultation with all the professional bodies, including estate surveyors who advised government on how to prepare the enumeration form, even undertook valuation reports on some of the properties.'Instead of getting three demand notices, the government decided to consolidate all the demand notices to one, what we did was to pass a law backing this new measure which sets the parameter for valuation.''We set the parameters for valuation based on information gotten from valuers. This parameter uses remote sensing from the Geographical Information System (GIS), property identification officers, name of the property owner, address size of land, measurement of the footprint and others.According to Ibrahim, rates in the country are the lowest in the world as in Kenya it is one percent based on property value and in Senegal 7.5 based on market value.'Property tax has been introduced every where in the world, and based on my research, most country use property tax and in China they use land use charge, and property tax, the norm is 18 per cent of the capital of the building.'If you have any issue on the law, the complainant pays 50 per cent first than he or she can file a complainant charge. However I can say that 85 per cent of the time the government is always right.'Ibrahim also stated that compliances rate since 2002 has increased even as the organized private sector helped to review prices and that the highest compliances, and people are now requesting for their bills.'Many people lie about the status about their property and blame government for overcharging. We can move Lagos forward by ensuring that estate surveyor's input is brought to bear in this campaign. Because we have adopted a process of valuation, we cannot be stuck with that method, we must think outside the box,' he said.He stressed that many people are encouraging the local government officers who collect tenement charges by bribing them. He urged individuals harassed by council officers to report the matter to the special adviser on Local Government Matters.Earlier Chairman of the Estate Agency Faculty, Mr. Chudi Ubosi, explained that the interaction with the authority is to thrash some of the issues affecting their members. 'We want to assist in enlightening our members because we interact with the landlords and tenants.
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