By Raymond Gukas, Jos
Alarmed by the non compliance in payment of ground rents, the Plateau State Government has begun the clampdown on defaulters, some of whom have arrears of about 15 years.
Flagging off the exercise in Jos, the state capital, the Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Town Planning, Yakubu Dati, said the non- compliance by business concerns in particular has on gravely affected the Internally Generated Revenue drive of the state.
He accused some bank branches in the state as culpable and to correct the abnormal situations, officials of the ministry has since embarked on an awareness campaign on operation pay -your tax and ground -rate among business and corporate outfits in the state.
The campaign which was personally supervised by the commissioner and his team visited Eco Bank regional manager at Ahmadu Bello Way, Jos, and formally presented him with the letter containing the accumulated ground rents and the plan by the government to recover the lost revenue accruing to the ministry.
He express dissatisfaction over the none payment of the land dues, said to be in arrears of 10 years and said his personal visit underlined the seriousness of the government’s plan to recover the money.
The permanent secretary of the ministry who was also present explained to the bank boss the penalty for the default, adding that the government would take stringent measures towards recovering the debt.
In his response the head of the bank promised to forward the letter to the head office and also promised that debt would be offset as soon as he got the clearance.
At Access Bank on Ahmadu Bello Way, the commissioner also delivered similar letter, asking the bank to clear its arrears of 15 years.
He lamented that since his assumption of office, he had discovered that many business owners and organizations are defaulting in the payment of their ground rents.
Dati emphasized the need for all companies operating in the state to urgently pay their debts to avoid embarrassment.
He called on individuals, private companies who might have defaulted to take advantage of the ongoing campaign on ground rents and obtain their C of O and other papers.
He also used the opportunity on the campaign to call on the people of the state to take advantage of the 50% discounts on certificate of occupancy (C of O) being issued by the governor, Simon Bako Lalong.
He appealed to land owners to avail themselves of the new opportunity as government has approved seven new layouts for which contractors have been given all the necessary paperwork on land titles.
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