The Commissioner for Finance, Tokunbo Abiru, disclosed that Lagos State Government has realised N6.28 billion from the collection of Land Use charge on properties in the state in year 2012.
Speaking with journalists, Abiru said the amount was an improvement over the N250million recorded in 2008.
“The adoption of the comprehensive billing of enumerated properties greatly helped to push up our revenue in 2012. As a matter of details, out of a total number of 641,132 enumerated across the state, 622,155 representing 97 per cent were billed.
“The outstanding 18,977 billable properties which are mainly raw records, and yet to be processed, but not exempted from payment, are now receiving due attention.
“It is gladdening that we have removed many of the problems encountered in the administration of the charge, and the voluntary payment by residents has helped a lot,” he said.
Abiru said records from the Lands Company Limited charged with the responsibility of collecting the charges for the first quarter of 2013, sign-posted robust revenue for the year.
He urged residents to pay their Land use charge promptly, saying that it would assist the government to deliver more development in the state.
He added that a total of N18, 031,148, 931 had been paid by the state government as pension to its retirees in the last five years, adding that N671, 094,145 had also been paid by the state‘s underwriters as compensations to dependants of 183 deceased workers as death benefits.
He said three tranches of bonds valued at N275billon had so far been issued by the state government, explaining that the proceeds were being used to finance on-going infrastructural projects.
He said the state attained 89 per cent budget performance last year, adding that the government has commenced the funding of the N499.6billion 2013 budget with vigour to ensure it achieves its set goals.
He also assured residents that all on-going projects will be completed, saying the state had embarked on financial strategies to ensure that projects undertaken by the administration are not left uncompleted.
Abiru also put the state’s monthly Internally Generated Revenue at N29billion, inclusive of what the state receives from the Federation Account, adding that the figure amounts to an average 10.7 per cent over the last five years.
“In specific terms, our total revenue grew from a monthly average of N18.9billion in 2008 to about N29billion in 2012, which amounts to an average yearly growth of 10.7 per cent over the past five year-period. Over the five year period, Internally Generated Revenue accounts for over 65 per cent of the total revenue.
“This reflected the stable nature of the state’s fiscal revenue, as it continued to rely more on IGR, rather than revenue receipts from the Federal Government which are subject to external shocks and dictated by prices of oil in the international market,” said Abiru.