Business

Parking Levy Controversy: New provision lawful, to eliminate indiscriminate collections — LASG

Published

2 years ago

September 8, 2022

…Debunks claims of levy on parks of private residence

By Moses Adeniyi

The Lagos State Government (LASG) has called on the public to disregard “false claims” making rounds over parking levy to be imposed by its Agency, the Lagos State Parking Authority (LASPA), stating that it is on point of law for the benefit of Lagosians.

This is just as the Government has said new development around parking levy was to provide framework for employment opportunities and generation of revenue, by eliminating indiscriminate levies imposed by unidentified actors.

Recall that a post had recently gone viral on social media, stating that LASPA issued a letter signed by its General Manager, levying a Lekki-based company a total sum of N290,000 for the parking lot outside their premises.

The report had generated controversies, which the government has described as a product of gap in knowledge of the law.

At a media engagement on the activities of the newly created agency, LASPA, the State’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, said the claims that the Government was to levy people for parking in their private residence was a craft of falsehood.

Describng those peddling the erroneous views around the levy as “bystanders and parrots who do not know anything about the law,” he said the claim “is a fallacy of the ear,” stating that it is a product of raising false alarm for the political season.

“It is not true, it is an attempt to malign the government by mischievous people. We are not surprised to see things like this because we are in the season of politics. When it comes to this kind of matter everybody seems to be an expert, everybody seems to be a lawyer,” he said.

This is just as the Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Dr. Frederick Oladeinde described the controversies generated over the subject as a product of “political jobbers and people with limited knowledge on the constitutional mandates of LASPA.”

He said against “the erroneous claims of certain individuals and groups, LASPA has the power by law to collect park levies.”

“As it is usually the case, especially in a political season, political jobbers and people with limited knowledge on the constitutional mandates of LASPA have tried fruitlessly to exaggerate the issue by playing to the gallery,” he said.

Describing the Agency as “a one stop authority, providing solutions to parking challenges across the State,” he said the idea that informed the creation of the Agency was to put an end to impediments arising from indiscriminate parking and collection of levies.

Highlighting the mandates of LASPA, he said “LASPA was created to find lasting solutions to the issues of indiscriminate and illegal parking across the state.”

This, according to him, “will aid prompt reduction of traffic gridlock experienced by everyone.”

“The agency was established, among others, to promote parking policies tailored to suit the peculiarity of the State in line with modern international standards towards achieving a smart city,” he added.

According to him, the Agency was also empowered to remove all “impediments arising from indiscriminate parking on carriageways, thereby increasing the carriageway capacity on the roads, improving the flow of traffic and reducing travel time.”

“First on our mandate is to improve the parking culture. We also believe that the establishment of the Authority also enables employment opportunities for the youths. In doing so, it is expected that revenue generation will come naturally,” he said.

The Commissioner said the Agency has the “mandate to charge fees on private commercial parks, non-commercial parks and other parking lots on any facility provided by the Authority.”

He argued that against the exorbitant cost commuters bear on stopovers with the usage of commercial parks, LASPA levy was flatly low and considerate.

“Let me emphasize that most private commercial parks charge the Lagosians between N500 to N1,000 parking dues per hour and each person parking at these respective parks can have 4 stop over which sums up to N2,000 or N4,000 daily.

“At the end of the year, the commercial park owner will realize over N182,500 or N365,000 if charges is per hour or gain a total N730,000 or N1,460,000 for 4 stopovers. This is the price most Lagosians pay to commercial park owners.

“LASPA levy of N80,000 divided by the No of days in a year result to N219 only against the above charges of commercial park owners.

“The difference is clear as the government is quite considerate and responsive in making the environment conducive for all,” he argued further.

He mentioned that as “a government that respects the constitution as the sole source of its engagement with the public, the State Government will never resort to any unconstitutional means in its dealing with the people.”

Enjoining Lagosians to cooperate with the agency and other similar stakeholders in carrying out “its laudable mandate,” Oladeinde implored interested and concerned members of the public to visit the Agency’s office for necessary information and assistance.

The General Manager, LASPA, Mrs. Adebisi Adelabu, said the State Government is moving to the level where every developer/builder must accommodate park provisions in their building plans before construction.

She said the prevailing order where buildings have been built without provisions for parking space, have had telling effects on infrastructure with gridlock which accompanies parking indiscriminately.

She said the Agency has been engaging with religious organisations and businesses on the need to establish parks for their worshippers and customers.

She mentioned that the need to reorder indiscriminate collection of levies for parking was important to channel the funds into infrastructure to solve existing problems.

She said the State was encouraging the development of parks by private stakeholders.

Business

Oyetola in Lagos, defies downpour, embarks on inspection tour

Published

2 days ago

May 17, 2024

NewsDirect

By Seun Ibiyemi

The rain in Lagos began very early on Thursday morning. But the torrential rainfall did not stop Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, CON, from embarking on the tour of two key institutions that were recently brought under his ministry — the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) and the Liaison office of the Department of Fishery and Aquaculture, which houses College of Fishery, Lagos.

His first port of call was NIOMR, where the Chief Executive of the institute, Prof. Abiodun Sule, took the Minister through some of its strategic breakthroughs, including unveiling some of the different species of fish in our waters.

The Minister charged the Institute to take up the challenge of mapping out the country’s various marine resources, saying the country needs to know what it has and in what quantity.

He charged the staff to redouble their efforts and ensure they find a solution to the rising cost of fish feeds in Nigeria. The Minister reiterated his desire to increase local production of fish, while reducing dependence on importation.

From the Institute, Oyetola and his entourage, which included the Permanent Secretary, Oloruntola Olufemi; Director, Maritime Safety and Security, Babatunde Bombata, and the Executive Director, Engineering and Technical Services, Engr. Ibrahim Umar, who represented the the MD of NPA, headed for the Department of Fishery and Aquaculture, where the delegation inspected the Laboratory and charged the staff not to lower the standard of monitoring and inspection so as to ensure the country’s exporters are not blacklisted by the International community and also ensuring that those being imported meet required standard.

He assured the staff of both institutions of his commitment to their welfare, while urging them to also increase their capacity and productivity, as he wants to see the fishing contribute to job creation and increase in revenue of the FG.

The elated members of staff promised the Minister not to let him down and pledged their commitment to the vision and mission of the Minister with respect to the maritime sector.

Business

CPPE urges CBN to halt interest rate tightening, as businesses are yet to recover from previous hikes

Published

2 days ago

May 17, 2024

NewsDirect

The Centre for the Promotion of Public Enterprise (CPPE) has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to slow down on monetary policy tightening ahead of its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting this month, stating that businesses are yet to recover from the hawkish monetary policy stance in the last two months.

The Centre stated this in its reaction to the latest inflation figures published by the NBS where headline inflation rose to 33.69 percent in the month of April from 33.20 percent in March.

According to the statement signed by the Director-General of the CPPE, Dr Muda Yusuf, monetary policy tools should be paused for the fiscal side of the economy to work towards addressing the supply issues affecting the inflation dynamics in the country.

He stated, “Meanwhile we urge the monetary policy Committee to soften its monetary tightening stance for the time being. Businesses are yet to recover from the shocks of the recent bullish rate hikes. The monetary instruments should be put on pause while fiscal policy tools address supply-side factors in the inflation dynamics.”

Furthermore, the Centre appreciated the slowdown in inflation for the month, especially headline and food inflation, but noted that the main drivers of price hikes (food, transport, insecurity in farming communities and other structural problems) are yet to cool down.

He explained that the drivers of inflation are supply-based and being addressed by the fiscal authorities. Also, Dr. Yusuf doubled down on his call to the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to set a quarterly exchange rate between N800 and N1000 for import duties assessment, noting that the continuous fluctuation has a pass-through effect on inflation.

In his words, “Meanwhile the exchange rate benchmark for the computation of import duty continues to be a major concern to businesses as it has become a major inflation driver. We again urge the CBN to peg the rate at between N800 -N1000/dollar to be reviewed quarterly. This is necessary to reduce the pass-through effect of heightening trade costs on inflation.”

Meanwhile, the CPPE also lauded the commencement of refining by the Dangote refinery, stating that it would help slow down inflation in the short term.

Recall that Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 33.69 percent in April on the back of an increase in food and transport prices. The rate is one of the highest in about 28 years.

The CBN, in an effort to rein in inflation, has increased

Business

April 2024: FG, States, LGs share N1,208.081trn

Published

2 days ago

May 17, 2024

NewsDirect

The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), at its May 2024 meeting chaired by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, shared a total sum of N1,208.081 Trillion to the three tiers of government as Federation Allocation for the month of April, 2024 from a gross total of N2,192.007 Trillion.

From the stated amount inclusive of Gross Statutory Revenue, Value Added Tax (VAT), Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and Exchange Difference (ED), the Federal Government received N390.412 Billion, the States received N403.403 Billion, the Local Government Councils got N293.816 Billion, while the Oil Producing States received N120.450 Billion as Derivation, (13 percent of Mineral Revenue).

The sum of N80.517 Billion was given for the cost of collection, while N903.479 Billion was allocated for Transfers Intervention and Refunds.

The Communique issued by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) at the end of the meeting indicated that the Gross Revenue available from the Value Added Tax (VAT) for the month of April 2024, was N500.920 Billion as against N549.698 Billion distributed in the preceding month, resulting in a decrease of N48.778 Billion.

From that amount, the sum of N20.037 Billion was allocated for the cost of collection and the sum of N14.426 Billion given for Transfers, Intervention and Refunds. The remaining sum of N466.457 Billion was distributed to the three tiers of government, of which the Federal Government got N69.969 Billion, the States received N233.229 Billion, Local Government Councils got N163.260 Billion.

Accordingly, the Gross Statutory Revenue of N1,233.498 Trillion received for the month was higher than the sum of N1,017.216 Trillion received in the previous month of March 2024 by N216.282 Billion. From the stated amount, the sum of N59.729 Billion was allocated for the cost of collection and a total sum of N889.053 Billion for Transfers, Intervention and Refunds.

The remaining balance of N284.716 Billion was distributed as follows to the three tiers of government: Federal Government got the sum of N112.148 Billion, States received N56.883 Billion, the sum of N43.855 Billion was allocated to LGCs and N71.830 Billion was given to Derivation Revenue (13 percent Mineral producing States).

Also, the sum of N18.775 Billion from Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) was distributed to the three (3) tiers of government as follows: the Federal Government received N2.704 Billion, States got N9.012 Billion, Local Government Councils received N6.308 Billion, while N0.751 Billion was allocated for Cost of Collection.

The Communique also disclosed the sum of N438.884 Billion from Exchange Difference, which was shared as follows: Federal Government received N205.591 Billion, States got N104.279 Billion, the sum of N80.394 Billion was allocated to Local Government Councils, while N48.620 Billion was given for Derivation (13 percent of Mineral Revenue).

Oil and Gas Royalties, Companies Income Tax (CIT), Excise Duty, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Customs External Tariff levies (CET) and Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) increased significantly, while Import Duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) recorded considerably decreases.

According to the Communique, the total revenue distributable for the current month of April 2024, was drawn from Statutory Revenue of N284.716 Billion, Value Added Tax (VAT) of N466.457 Billion, N18.024 Billion from Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N438.884 Billion from Exchange Difference, bringing the total distributable amount for the month to N1,208.081 Trillion.

The balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) as at May 2024 stands at $473,754.57.