Lands ministry knocks down office walls in graft war

Time taken for the ministry to have ready valuation reports for purposes of stamp duty levy is also set to be reduced as the newly launched service charter pegs it to 21 days despite the review of the Finance Bill to allow for 180 days up from 90 days for the payment of stamp duty.

Deputy commissioner for domestic tax Mwangi Githaiga said the upward revision of the time allowed to pay stamp duty to complete the transfer of a property was informed by the high number of deals that had to be aborted because most valuation report certificates are not ready within the allowed 90 day period.

“Allowing 90 more days for the payment of stamp duty levies is expected to increase the finalisation of transactions that have been locked out because they have taken longer than the allowed time to be completed,” said Mr Githaiga.

Key infrastructure

The annual budgets for respective local authorities failed to allocate money towards the development of key infrastructure such as estate roads and drainage, according Mwendwa Makathimo, the chairman of the Kenya Institute of Building.

“Developers are still allocating significant amounts in the development of key infrastructure, which is a responsibility of the council especially in opening up newer areas for construction,” said Mr Makathimo.

The annual budget sought to encourage compliance with the payment of land rates by restricting accumulated rates.

It had been established that land rate defaulters had failed to clear outstanding rates because the penalties for late repayment had accumulated to more than the value of the land itself.