Stakeholders in the housing sector have said that the multiple taxes levied on the private sector were stifling the industry.

The President, Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria, Bisi Adedire, identified multiple taxation/levies on land across the ministry and agencies of government as issues affecting private sector operators in the built industry.

He disclosed this at a two-day workshop in Ogun State themed, “The impact of emerging technologies on urban and regional planning: challenges and opportunities.”

He said, “While the levies are necessary to enhance the capacity of the government to provide essential services to drive development, the burden hurts property developers, especially when they’re compelled to pay everything upfront while construction has not started on their plots of land. The Federal Government should look into it and adopt a system that would be beneficial to all stakeholders.”

In a similar vein, an estate surveyor, Olorunyomi Alatise, said the multiplicity of taxation in the housing sector was one of the reasons people were reluctant to regularise their landed property.

He said, “You just acquired a property and you are trying to process your Certificate of Occupancy, but at the point of doing this, part of the things you need is a tax clearance, and tax clearance is evidence that you do not owe the state. Also, you will pay capital gains tax, the tenement rate, which has been harmonised into the land use charge, and other taxes. By the time they itemise the different taxes you are to pay, you find out that it is a lot for someone that just acquired a property.”

Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Lagos State, Oluwole Sotire, said the government has a responsibility to render service to the people it serves, but also noted that citizens, too, are expected to pay land taxes/levies.

“We must first of all understand that citizens have to pay taxes or levies to the government. Whether it is equitable is another question. However, efforts should be made to involve proper stakeholders and the rest of the citizens to ensure beneficial planning and good governance,” he said.

Speaking on planning regulations as something beneficial to everyone, he lamented that citizens, including individuals in government, sometimes latch onto the weak end of government to cut corners and contravene the planning regulations..

He added, “There is a case now even in Ogun State, just like a Certificate of Occupancy has been granted to a gentleman. They issued a C-of-O to one person for about 4.5 hectares of land at Otta. Before you know it, those we say are government officials at the land went ahead and cut part of it simply because the land has been lying fallow for a good number of years.

“They believe it may be that the person is dead. They cut about half of the 2.2 hectares and issued another C-of-O. The case is still on the ground. We wrote a letter to the ministry stating that this C-of-O has been issued for the past 15 years by the government, and it is the same government that has issued another one that cuts across that portion of the land.

“So, the fact that people know that I’m working on that site, they have to call to my attention that somebody has started constructing a fence around that place. We have submitted our letter to the government, the governor, the lands commissioner, and every other agency. Up till today, nothing has come out of it, and the guy(encroacher) is still developing that site. So, at times, the government can be a problem to society.”

The Chief Executive Officer, Pelican Valley, Babatunde Adeyemo, advised the government to be more practical and realistic with land acquisition by always following due process as well as provide basic services or infrastructure necessary to ignite development in the acquired areas, warning that development would remain elusive in the estate until the right things are put in place.

He said, “The rules are there. I think what we need to do is a strategic orientation. There should be proper orientation and enforcement for people to follow laid down rules and regulations because they are coined by people, the intellectuals, and the regulations didn’t fall from the sky, and once we are able to enforce that I believe we will be able to better the lives of people and the government.

“The problem in Nigeria is not about policy formulation.  It is all about implementation. When formulating the policies, I always believe that people in authority – the President, governors, and ministers have advisers before they go into acquisition..Let me talk about the Muhammad Buhari Estate in Kobape. The problem here wasn’t all about acquisition, I believe it is the wrong implementation of acquisition.

“We need to be more practical and strategic when we are doing land acquisitions. You don’t just go to clear villages when you can’t put infrastructure in place to ignite the development. Who is going to be the first person to live there?”