Osun assembly passes land use charge law

The Osun state house of assembly on Monday passed into law, the state land use charge bill.

Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, chairman, house committee on information and strategy, confirmed this in a statement, saying the passage of the bill followed a motion by Timothy Owoeye, leader of the house.

The bill, which, he said was sponsored by the executive arm of government was seeking to make provision for the consolidation of all property and land based rates law, the neighbourhood improvement charge law and tenement rate law into a new land based charge, to be called property land use charge to make provision for the levying and collection of the charges and for connected purposes.

In November, the assembly held a public hearing on the bill, where professional bodies and other stakeholders were said to have lauded the bill, saying it was coming at the appropriate time.

Oyintiloye quoted Najeem Salaam, speaker of the assembly, as saying passage of the bill was delayed to ensure affordable rate that would not put unnecessary burden on the people are arrived at.

“Mr Speaker charged the executive to ensure effective sensitisation of the people to key in into the new law and see reason to pay the appropriate charges,” the statement read.

“He also called on the implementers of the new law not to hide under it to put unnecessary burden on the people, urging that the law should rather be used for the benefit of the people.

“Mr speaker then sought the understanding of the people over the new law and assured that the state assembly would monitor its implementation when assented to by the governor, to ensure its effectiveness to the extent that it would not add unnecessary burden on the people of the state.”