Land rent collection up by 50 per cent

AS the grace period for land rent defaulters expires on December 31, this year, the Ministry of Land, Housing and Human Settlement, has recorded increased monthly collection to 15bn/- from 10bn/-.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan announced grace period for land rent defaulters from July to December 31, failure of that they risk facing legal action.

The government offered a free-interest rent payment and fees if tenants took advantage of the grace period.

Addressing a press conference recently, head of tax department at the ministry, Dennis Masami, said upon the end of the grace period, the government will take the rightful legal actions.

Masame said before the amnesty was given the collection were about 8bn/- to 10 bn/- per month but since July the collection have increased to an average of 15bn/- per month.

Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlement has threatened to take legal measures on land rent defaulters who have failed to comply with the grace period.

He said the law states that land owners are required to pay the annual fees within six months of the particular financial year, failure of which attracts interest on the payments.

“The grace period started from July, 2022 until December, this year, and is an initiative to recover the land rent arrears that had been accumulated over the years and provide all landowners what they were entitled to receive from the use of their land,” he said.

He explained that at least 10,000 defaulters responded by paying their debts.

After the expiry of the grace period, the next course of action will be to repossess plots of land, sell the property to refund the money, among other actions.

“Let the public adhere to this last-time call failure of which they will face the government action” he added.

He explained that prior to the grace period some 3400 hearings had been reported in court.

Out of the cases, he noted that 90 per cent have been handled, noting that over two million people have been included in the system.

According to Masami, compliance to paying land rents and fees have increased between 40-60 per cent.

Speaking at the same event Dodoma Regional Land Officer, Latare Shoo, noted that the region has also benefited from the grace period.

He said the regional system has over 150,000 land tenants but most of them do not pay rent.

“We will implement the government directives on those who fail to comply” he said