FCT Minister Nyesom Wike Approves Property Tax in Abuja

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has approved a draft property tax regulation for the city.

This regulation, which is expected to take effect soon, will mandate property owners in the city to pay taxes on their properties.

The FCT-Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) has already commenced the implementation of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) in Abuja, as stipulated in the Capital Gains Tax Act 2004.

The CGT imposes a tax of 10 per cent on the total amount of chargeable gains (after making allowable deductions from the computation of such gains) accruing to any person on the disposal of chargeable assets in a year of assessment.

The Executive Chairman of FCT-IRS, Haruna Abdullahi, has stated that the property tax regulation and the full implementation of CGT are expected to significantly increase the FCT’s revenue.

Abdullahi noted that the FCT-IRS has been able to grow its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to about N140 billion, and the implementation of these new measures is expected to further boost IGR.

He stated that the property tax regulation would empower the minister to come up with a property tax regulation for the FCT.

“In the last three weeks, the minister has approved some initiatives that are huge and will certainly change the dynamics in terms of the bottom line. Just the other day, we submitted a draft proposal to the minister for the FCT property tax regulation,” Abdullahi said.

“The FCT-IRS Act empowers the minister to come up with a property tax regulation for the FCT. So, we had a long conversation and we suggested it to the minister, and he asked us to come up with a draft regulation, which we did, and he has approved the initiative.”

According to him, the FCT-IRS has already drafted the regulation and obtained ministerial approval, and the regulation will be reviewed by relevant stakeholders before being signed and gazette by the minister.

He also stated that the minister has approved the full implementation of the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) in Abuja, stressing that this would increase the FCT’s revenue targets.