Dodoma — THE Ministry of Land, Housing and Human Settlement Development has collected 75 per cent of its land rent target in a period between July and December last year.
The collections have been partly attributed by President Samia Suluhu Hassan's exemption on accumulated interests on defaulters.
According to the ministry, the land rent target between July and December last year was 121bn/-and it has collected 90.9bn/-.
The President also extended the grace period offered to land rent defaulters to settle the principal amount for another three months.
Earlier, the exemption was for the period of six months from July 2022 to 31, December 2022 but now the President has extended the time to April 30, this year.
Minister for Land, Housing and Human Settlement Development, Dr Angelina Mabula told reporters yesterday that President Samia has extended the grace period to allow those who failed to settle the payments, due to various reasons including connectivity hitches to clear their debts.
Following Dr Samia's decision, Minister Mabula directed all Land Officers to work all the days including weekends so as to serve majority of people in need of the services.
She further said that, a total of 6,211 land rent defaulters have benefited from the exemptions where some 11.9bn/- of unpaid accumulated interest was exempted.
"The government believes that the unpaid accumulated interest which has been exempted will provide a relief to respective individuals and stimulate social and economic activities ... I express my gratitude to President Samia for her decision with the aim of providing relief to citizens and various institutions," Ms Mbula said,
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She called upon institutions and public organisations and citizens in general to use the extended period to benefit from the exemption by paying the required principal amount
"All people and institutions should pay their principal amount within the given time ... there are 63 public institutions and agencies in the list," she said.
Before the grace period for land rent defaulters expired on December 31 last year, the Ministry had recorded an increased monthly collection from 10bn/- to 15bn/- .
Head of Tax Department at the ministry, Dennis Masami said before the exemption was given the collection was between 8bn/- to 10 bn/- per month but since July the collection has increased to an average of 15bn/-per month.
Ministry of Land, Housing and Human Settlement has threatened to take legal measures against land rent defaulters who will fail to clear their debts within the given grace period.
After the issued grace period elapses, the Ministry will start taking legal measures including revocation of land ownership (title deeds) in accordance with Article 45 of the Land Law (Cap 113) and open litigation proceedings before auctioning the property in order to cover the relevant taxes," he added.
