Senate approves property tax in Abuja

The new legislation is the first of its kind since the creation of the nation’s capital in 1976, our correspondent reports.Section 24 (3) (1), of the bill empowers the board to “cause all taxable, real property in the FCT to be appraised at least once in every five years.”It also stipulates that all taxable property […]

The new legislation is the first of its kind since the creation of the nation’s capital in 1976, our correspondent reports.
Section 24 (3) (1), of the bill empowers the board to “cause all taxable, real property in the FCT to be appraised at least once in every five years.”
It also stipulates that all taxable property must be appraised at its market value as of January 1 in the year of appraisal.
The rate of assessment indicates that taxable real property in the FCT would attract the following rates: (a) Residential-0.1 percent; (b) Commercial-0.2 percent; (c) Recreational-0.1 percent; (d) Government and governmental agencies-0.1 percent and (e) Others-0.3 percent.
Section 24 (2) lists those exempted from property tax in the FCT. They are: properties owned by religious bodies; cemetery, especially where it is non-profit making; parks or public square and the diplomatic community.
Others are, public library; palaces of recognised traditional rulers; non- government organisations offering social welfare service, buildings used for learning and education and also, those used solely for community games or sports.
According to Senator Smart Adeyemi whose committee processed the bill, the FCT currently receives N250 million as statutory allocations from the Federation Account whereas it proposed a N30 billion budget for 2014.
Adeyemi who chairs the FCT committee said the bill also created the FCT board of internal revenue which is charged with responsibility of harnessing internally generated revenue of the capital city.
 “With the coming of the board in place, the FCT would be able to generate revenue internally and that will help to augment what is coming from the federation account.
“However, this board when it is established and fully operational and it spreads its tentacles for internally generated revenue, we expect that additional sum not less than N100 billion would be generated from FCT,” he enthused.
Section 8 of the bill stated that the service shall have the power to “adopt measures to identify, trace, freeze, confiscate or seize the proceeds of tax fraud or evasion.”
The bill gives the board powers to retain at most 10 percent of its revenue of the previous year for administrative cost.
The tax payable in respect of real property, the bill noted, is from January 1 to December 31 of each calendar year.