Churches And Mosques To Start Paying Taxes In Lagos

Religious organisations such as mosques, churches will now start paying taxes in Lagos if a bill that is in the House of Assembly sails through.

A bill that would review the land use charge in Lagos state has gone through second reading on the floor of the state House of Assembly during plenary on Thursday, December 28.

The law tagged: “A Bill for A Law To Repeal The Land Use Charge Law 2001 and Enact Land Use Charge 2017 and For Connected Purposes” was subsequently committed to the House Ad-hoc Committee on Finance headed by Yinka Ogundimu representing Agege II.

Speaker of the House, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, said the law was all about increasing the revenue generation of the state. He said that the House would not exempt religious organisations in the law “because most of the worship centres are making money.

The Speaker of the House, Honourable Mudashiru Obasa said

“We need more consultants to do the job so that the entire state could be covered in the collection of land use charge. Whatever tribunal that would be set up to deal with offenders should have the support of the government.

“On the issue of exemptions, we cannot exempt religious organisations because most of the worship centres are making money. We could only exempt Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).”