By Yinka Kolawole

An estate surveyor and valuer, Mr. Chudi Ubosi, has lamented the paltry contribution of property tax to the overall revenue of states in Nigeria, put at less than 2 percent.

Speaking at a one-day seminar on Property Taxation in Nigeria organised by the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI) Nigeria Chapter, in Lagos recently, Ubosi lamented that whereas the contribution of property tax to overall annual revenue in states like Johannesburg in South Africa; Rio de Janeiro in Brazil;

Toronto in Canada; Georgia in United States are 20 percent, 29 percent , 32 percent and 21 percent respectively, those of Lagos and Anambra States who lead the pack in Nigeria make paltry contributions of 1.6 percent and 1.8 percent respectively.

He noted that easy money from the federal government has made most state governments complacent on issues of property tax, adding that unlike Lagos State which has put together an efficient tax administrative and collection system, most states are still very comfortable with receiving monthly revenue allocations from the Federal Government.

“Today, Lagos collects an internally generated revenue of between N12 billion and N14 billion monthly. In 2008, the State made a total of N139.2 billion from internally generated revenue.

Of this figure, tax from property accounts for between one percent to two percent annually. In 2010, the state generated a total of N3.00bn from Land Use Tax alone,” he stated.

Ubosi queried the exclusion of estate surveyors and valuers from assessment and valuations of property taxes, often leading to wrong assessment and valuations occasioned by the use of the wrong personnel or staff, who are not professionals and have little or no experience in property valuation.

He called for the involvement of private sector operators in the administration and collection of property taxes to take care of identified drawbacks