Minister halts FCT tenement rates collection

The minister has therefore directed that the FCT permanent secretary should write to the chairman of AMAC, to ensure that all illegal rates-be it tenement, shop or whatever should not be collected by anybody on behalf of the council.Disclosing this while briefing newsmen in Abuja, after the FCT Executive Committee (EXCO) meeting, the minister, stressed […]

The minister has therefore directed that the FCT permanent secretary should write to the chairman of AMAC, to ensure that all illegal rates-be it tenement, shop or whatever should not be collected by anybody on behalf of the council.
Disclosing this while briefing newsmen in Abuja, after the FCT Executive Committee (EXCO) meeting, the minister, stressed that area councils have no reason to collect such rates, as they run the markets, parking facilities and the motor parks in the area councils, where they generate revenue.
Mohammed, who spoke through the Coordinator of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), Ruben Okoya, pointed out that the directive also goes to other chairmen of all the area councils in the FCT, adding that residents of the Territory have suffered from such illegal tax collections.
He revealed that there are complains about certain people claiming to be AMAC representatives going around collecting tenement rates ranging from N40,000 to N100,000  from FCT residents.
He warned that anybody caught collecting such rates that are illegal would be prosecuted, adding that the FCT Administration would not condone such activities.
 “In some cases you find touts going around collecting rates illegally, but it beholds on the FCT Administration to work in collaboration with security agencies to stop such and arrest such people that are involved in such activities.
“It was brought to the notice of FCT, and after discussing it extensively, the minister then directed that the permanent secretary should write to the chairman of AMAC, to ensure that no illegal rates are collected by anybody on behalf of the council.
“Tenement rates have their own ways of being collected by the FCT administration, so the minister was very unhappy, and so was the entire executive committee.
“And what the committee did was to write to AMAC chairman, to say any rate you are collecting that is not backed by law, stop it; any rates that you are collecting legally, and then continue,” Okoya quoted the minister.
Consequently, he said by the end of this week the letter should get to the AMAC chairman, who is expected to swing into immediate action to raise an enforcement team, to make sure such illegal collections are stopped forthwith.
Furthermore, he argued that the FCT area councils get their normal allocation every month, still the FCTA  also gives back 10 % of the revenue it generate internally to the councils.
“FCT is the only territory where the minister, being the governor does not keep any part of the councils’ revenue, rather he pays to them, adding that, “if the councils are saying that if they don’t collect some rates that they would die, then we have to think about it twice,” he stressed.