Some experts in Property Law have said
that the Lagos State Government will do well to remove or reduce the
cost of obtaining titles for landed properties in the state, saying the
process should be for regulation rather than revenue generation.
The experts argued that the high cost of
registering land title in Lagos had been discouraging a lot of people
from following the due process.
This position was canvassed last week at
a workshop on the Lagos State Lands Registration Law 2015, organised by
the Department of Private and Property Law, Faculty of Law, University
of Lagos.
Leading the debate was a Senior Advocate
of Nigeria and a former Federal Commissioner for Works, Alhaji Femi
Okunnu, who pointed out that “the excessive fees charged by Lagos State
Government was deterring people from registering their documents.”
Also, another Senior Advocate of Nigeria
and a former Commissioner for Environment in Lagos State, Dr. Muiz
Banire, pointed out that the government would have made more money if it
could lower the cost of land title registration as more people would be
encouraged to come forward.
“The government seems myopic. If you
lower the amount chargeable, the turnover will even be higher than what
they’re getting now,” Banire said.
A former Attorney General of Lagos State
and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Supo Shasore (SAN), called for
increased transparency in the Lagos State land registry and land
information management system, to ensure increased public confidence.
On his own part, a lecturer in the
Department of Commercial and Industrial Law, UNILAG, Dr. Abiola Sanni,
said, “Ideally the purpose of registration is not mainly to generate
revenue but for management or regulatory purposes, while the essence of
taxation is revenue generation.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment