The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has approved a three-year waiver to property owners that had defaulted in payment of Land Use Charge (LUC) and a 25 percent discount on early payment of the levies.
Sanwo-Olu said that the waiver approved was to assist businesses and property owners to reduce the financial pressure and cushion other effects brought by global economic challenges caused by the spread of coronavirus to Lagos.
The approval came one month after a reversal of LUC fee to pre-2018 era, so as to ease renewal process for property owners and accommodate agitations of Lagosians on the charges.
Sanwo-Olu said the repeal of the 2018 Law on LUC was to further create an incentive platform that can assist the corporate sector to boost their businesses towards getting over the lockdown imposed earlier after coronavirus spread to Lagos earlier in the year.
The governor stressed that the new Land Use law was designed to address controversial provisions that had often resulted in a face-off between government and property owners and remove ambiguity in levies paid by companies in Lagos.
He said: “We are granting a waiver of three years in late payment, which covers 2017, 2018 and 2019. We are also giving a 25 percent special discount on early payment. By this, we have achieved a 48 percent reduction for businesses in chargeable rates by repealing the 2018 Land Use Laws.
“We are taking these steps to show that we are not being insensitive to the plight of businesses and residents, especially in this period of pandemic that has slowed down activities. We have been doing everything possible to make sure businesses are not choked by taxes.”
Sanwo-Olu, meanwhile assured business owners that his administration would continue to introduce more incentives to strengthen its partnership with the private sector to keep Lagos economy on the path of growth.
