Alpha Beta Denies Collecting Land Use Charge for Lagos
Admits doing business with the state govt
Gboyega Akinsanmi
Alpha Beta Consulting LLP yesterday denied involvement in the collection and administration of the Land Use Charge for Lagos State contrary to reports that linked the firm with the enforcement of the state’s newly reviewed Land Use Law, 2018.
Alpha Beta, a breed of management, information systems and technology consulting firm, however, admitted that it “does business with the state as we do with other individuals and organisations that require our services.”
The Deputy Managing Director of the tax consulting giant, Mr. Bode Oluyemi, in a three-paragraph statement he personally issued yesterday, debunking all reports that linked the firm with the collection of land use charge in the state.
Different stakeholders had protested the insertion of Alpha Beta under the Rules Governing the Distribution of the newly reviewed Lagos State Land Use Charge Law, 2018.
Under the section, the law states: “Alpha Beta or any other designated person (s) or corporate body, who has the responsibility of monitoring the incoming revenues of the state through the collecting banks shall provide a report to the Accountant-General of the state.”
In a reaction on Wednesday, the state House of Assembly admitted that it inserted Alpha Beta in the land use charge law, 2018 in error, noting that the process of the new legislation “is not complete until the state government properly gazettes it.”
However, in a statement he signed yesterday, Oluyemi clarified that Alpha Beta “is not involved in the collection and administration of the Land Use Charge of Lagos State.
“Although we do business with the state as we do with other individuals and organisations that require our services, Land Use Charge collection and/or administration is not part of our brief.
“We make bold to state, therefore, that the stories making the rounds that link us to it is not true and do not represent our correct relationship with the government,” he said.
He observed that the state government recently announced an increase in the Land Use Charge, acknowledging that it “has equally engaged the public on the intent and details of the law in response to the public reactions to it.”
But in a text message, the Chairman of House Committee on Information, Hon. Tunde Braimoh, agreed that Alpha Beta was inserted in error.
The lawmaker noting that the process of promulgating the new law “is not complete until gazetting when the official copy will be available and the law properly cited.”
Braimoh, therefore, promised that the correct position “will be reflected before the law is gazette. The process of gazetting itself is being expedited in view of these issues.”