The Ondo State government has announced that it would soon commence the implementation of Land Use Charge law.
The Commissioner for Finance, Wale Akinterinwa, after a meeting with stakeholders across the state, described the land use charge as a veritable and legal revenue generation means for the government.
Akinterinwa noted the state government’s readiness to drive the programme with inputs from all stakeholders, hence the engagement.
He solicited their support to help create effective awareness among their people so that the good intention of the government would not be misconstrued.
“The government will continue to hold more consultations until there is an acceptable template for the government, the people and relevant stakeholders,” he said.
On his part, state chairman of the Board of Internal Revenue, Tolu Adegbile, said that the administration of the law would begin, as soon as the proposal for implementation was approved by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu.
According to Adegbile, “As you are aware, prior to now, tenement rate used to be collected by the local government for all houses in the state. But a law was passed in 2014 canceling that. That law is a land use charge law. When I came into office, I realised that the law has not been followed.”
“You still have local government collecting tenement rate, members of the board also collecting land use charge, they were fighting on the road and there were issues here and there.
“So, I decided that it was high time we had a meeting with stakeholders, let the local government chairmen come, let the state board of internal revenue, who have been trying to collect come, let representatives of the various commissioners in the state come; let’s all come together and harmonise
