Industries get tax holiday, discounts on land acquisition in Oyo

In its bid to attract local and foreign investors, especially in the agricultural sector, Oyo State government is set to grant discounts of between 70 percent and 90 percent on land acquisition.

Also, the government is ready to grant 100 percent tax holiday for up to seven years to eligible industries.

The disclosures were made at a round-table interaction between the state government and Organised Private Sector (OPS) in Ibadan. Tosin Ayoade, senior special adviser on trade and investment, to the state governor, told BusinessDay that genuine investors willing to set up companies in any sector of the economy would enjoy the incentive from the state. Ayoade said the discounts were meant to attract investors into the state, adding that “it depends on what to do on the land, whether is educational, pioneer industries or from any other sectors of the economy.”

While saying that the gesture had encouraged many investors to move to the state to invest, he noted that an investor had just acquired 10,000 hectares of land in Tede, out of the 25,000 hectares needed for the planting of the Soyabean in the Oke Ogun area of the state.

The investment policies, he stated, had paid off with many companies springing up along the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway.

He said that Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s several business trips abroad to source for foreign investors had started yielding results with industries coming up.

However, the meeting dealt extensively on the complaints of multiple taxes, charges and levies emanating from both state and local government agencies and non availability of water, which is one of the major component of manufacturing sector, erratic power supply and security of the OPS.

Some of the participants were Folakemi Akinleye, head, Bureau of Investment Promotion and Public-Private Partnerships in the office of Oyo State governor, permanent secretaries from environment, water corporation, chairman of the state internal revenue service, senior special adviser on trade and investment, representatives of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) in the South West, Ibadan Chambers of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture, NASSI, and NASME.

Chairman of the state internal revenue board, Isiaka Zakariyau said the issues raised by the OPS would be look into, saying the state had not be involved in multiple taxes and levies compared with other states in the country.

While asking the companies to stop paying emission fees to NESREA but can only pay such to state of residence, he said the local governments in the state had no right to collect any levy from companies because “the tenement rate been collected by LGs before is now Land Use charge being collected by the state government.

“The LGs have the right to only issue hackney permit which include parking permit to commercial vehicles and motorcyclists and they cannot collect any other levies from companies.”

Oguntola Gabriel, permanent secretary, Oyo State Water Corporation, on his part, said the two dams at Asejire and Eleyele would soon be dredged to ensure increase capacity, but added that the corporation planned to lay pipes from Eleyele to Oluyole industrial estate to make water more available for the people and industries in the area.

Remi Feyisipo