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Chinwendu Obioha, Abuja
President of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV),
ESV (Chief) Emmanuel Okas Wike, has disclosed that organisation is reviewing the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) policy, ordering all property owners and their agents to charge six percent Stamp Duty on all tenancy and lease agreements they enter into with all leases and remit promptly to the Service.
The NIESV president who stated this while answering questions from journalists shortly after inspecting a five-storey building Council headquarters which is still under construction in Abuja, further revealed that the matter has been handed over to the Council’s newly inaugurated Presidential Advisory Committee to thoroughly review the legal and other aspects of the policy.
Wike added that the official position of the Council would be made known to the public when the Committee submits its report, however stressed that the policy, for him, will have negative impact on tenants.
“Very well it is going to impact on the industry, but I wouldn’t want to give a personal opinion, the institution is looking at that, we have a Presidential Advisory Committee that we just formed and we have handed the matter to them, we have legal committee that are also looking at it.
“But as a person, I can tell you that that is a very big burden for members of the society that are not property owners, especially those who are tenants.
“But I think that we will allow the institution have a position on that and I can tell you that in the next few days, we will come up with a position paper that will be sent to FIRS,” he stated .
The NIESV boss however announced a donation of N5m for the support of the Council headquarters’ building while urging members to also support the building project.
He said the target is to complete the building project and move in the Council Secretariat into the headquarter.
The President declared that any state government or corporate organisation that support the building project with as much as N50m would have a floor named after it.
“Our target is that before the end of this Administration in 2022, we should move in into this place and I know that our members are capable despite economic challenges that we are facing.
“Let me also say that the idea we have is for us to see whether we can invite our friends, corporate organizations, government to also look at this place as an investment opportunity.
“We also willing to throw this opportunity to our members who can contribute to the building of the project, if a member gives 30 to 50 million naira or the cost of completing one floor, we name that particular floor after the donor.
“We also throw it open to our members, those who can donate that kind of money, that’s our idea so that people will look at it as an investment and an advocacy for their own opportunity.
“The other way we want to do it is also to talk to our members, those who will be ready to invest in the property with the hope that whatever rent that we generate from here, we give a percentage of our rent so that is the idea that we want to bring on board and we know that most of our members and friends will buy into it” he stated.
He thanked past leaders of organisation and vowed to continue from where they have stopped, ‘it is our project that’s why we are here to look at what the contractor has done’.
