Search This Blog

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Inadequate data hinders effective administration of property tax – don

Prof. Timothy Nubi of University of Lagos on Thursday identified inadequate data and poor documentation as impediments to effective administration of property tax in the country.

Nubi, the Dean of Faculty of Environmental Sciences, made the observation at the International Conference on Property Tax Reform in Lagos.

The conference was organised by the Department of Estate Management of the University of Lagos.

He said there were numerous acres of land across the country that were not registered, stressing that just about four per cent of lands in country was registered with the government.

“If all the lands in the country are registered, it means government will earn more income because before any transaction is carried on lands, some taxes will be paid to the government.

“The governments have right to collect ground tax, transfer tax or property tax, development levies, among others, on the lands within their jurisdiction.

“But when only about four per cent of the land is registered, it means the governments collect taxes and levies on four per cent of the lands in the country which implies that government is losing,’’ the expert said.

Nubi said that there was the need for proper evaluation and documentation of landed property in the country to pave way for effective administration of property taxation.

He said this would help the three tiers of government to generate the expected revenue from the exercise.

“It is important that governments have adequate data on the available properties to be able to appropriately collect the taxes because there is no way government can collect taxes on a land it does not know of its existence.

“To have effective property taxation system, a lot of underground works need to be done; there must adequate data on available properties and there must be up-to-date tenancy register.

“A well structured taxation system is not supposed to a source of worry/ burden to the payers. It supposed to be geared towards efficient wealth creation and distribution,’’ he said.

The expert said that a review of Land Use Charge (LUC) and amendment of the 1999 Constitution would aid effective and sustainable administration of property tax in Nigeria.

The post Inadequate data hinders effective administration of property tax – don appeared first on Vanguard News.

No comments:

Post a Comment