By Ashemiriogwa Emmanuel
About N200 million was generated by the Ondo State government in 2020 from Land Use Charge (LUC), the Ondo State Internal Revenue Service (ODIRS) has disclosed.
Chairman of the agency, Mr Tolu Adegbie, said during a sensitisation day in Akure, the state capital that the money was from owners of commercial and industrial properties in the state.
According to him, the operational arm has recorded N120 million for this year and is hoping to collect about N250 million before the year runs out.
The ODIRS Chairman said, “Before the advent of Governor Akeredolu in 2017, the maximum amount collected from the LUC was about N7 million. The law was actually passed in 2014 by the immediate past governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko.
“In 2018 alone, we collected about N150 million; in 2019, we collected N180 million, and in 2020, we collected N200 million. This year, we’ve shared N120 million, and we are hoping to collect about N250 million before the end of the year.”
Explaining how the charge helps extend development into the grass-root areas, he said, “The LUC law states that anything collected should be shared between the state and the local governments.
“The state gets 80 per cent, and the local government gets 20 per cent. However, Governor Akeredolu had approved the increase of the share of the local government to 30 per cent while the state gets 70 per cent.”
Mr Adegbie then tasked residents of the state to pay their charges, warning that the state government will begin to sanction defaulters of its land use charge from Wednesday, December 1, 2021.
“The year is running to an end, and this charge is paid annually, so a lot of people have not paid for a while, and we’ve been doing sensitisation on the television and radio urging them to come and pay.
“We are giving them enough time. We are starting the enforcement in December, so people have a whole one month to pay their land use charge, and we employ everyone to pay,” he said.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Adedapo Adesanya