Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, has disclosed that his administration is thinking of raising ground rent payments. He has also called the failure to pay ground rent and other taxes his biggest difficulty as a government official.
According to the PUNCH, the FCT government started evicting ground rent defaulters’ properties on Monday. The Federal Inland Revenue Service, the National Agency for Trafficking of Persons, the Peoples Democratic Party’s National Secretariat, an Access Bank branch and a TotalEnergies petrol station were among them.
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The PDP and FIRS leaderships attacked the Wike-led FCTA’s activities, calling them disrespectful to the nation’s democracy and lacking in professionalism.
President Bola Tinubu stepped in and issued a 14-day deadline for the payment of the outstanding amounts. Depending on the location within the Federal Capital Territory, the penalties might range from N2 million to N3 million.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday during an inspection of ongoing projects in Abuja, Wike bemoaned the fact that although citizens of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) want infrastructure, they do not help the government by paying taxes.
He pointed out that even though ground rent hasn’t changed in a long time, many debtors still owing up to 20 years’ worth of ground rent.
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“My greatest challenge is the refusal of people to pay what they owe. I will elaborate on this in the next media chat. People want facilities, they want infrastructure, but nobody asks where the funds come from. Abuja is not an oil-producing city; we rely solely on taxes. These are not new taxes; they have been in place for years,” the minister stated.
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