Collect right property tax – Botwe to Assemblies

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Dan Botwe, has expressed worries about how private developers put up properties worth millions of Ghana cedis and yet leave their access roads to be constructed by the state when they do not pay the right property tax.

According to him, this situation, which has become the norm in the country, is worrying.

Mr Botwe, who is also the Member of Parliament for the Okere Constituency in the Eastern Region, expressed this worry on Accra-based Asempa FM on Wednesday, 27 October 2021.

The lawmaker said many of these private developers build without paying any property rate yet mount pressure on the government to construct roads in their immediate space.

He said if some of the Assemblies in these areas are able to collect the appropriate tax on some of these properties, it will be easy for the government to construct many of the roads.

Mr Botwe noted that some of the Assemblies sit on gold yet they wait for the District Assemblies Common Fund for their development needs.

“Many of these Assemblies, till date, collect flat rate as property rate without any valuation on the property and the land,” he lamented.