Private school owners under the aegis of National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, (NAPPS) Ogun chapter have decried the payment of the newly introduced land use and amenities charge by the government as killing and a way to put more burdens on private school owners across the state, calling on government to reverse the payment.
The State President of the Association, Dr Holumidey Lawrence said this in a Press conference he addressed at the State Secretariat of the Association held in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Dr Holumidey Lawrence who described the land use and amenities charge as killing, obnoxious, undefendable, and uncalled-for, warned that the introduction of the levy poses a threat to the existence and survival of private schools across the state, calling on government not to over burden Private schools.
Private School owners in the State have been loaded with various levies and the current one now which is the demand by the Ministry of Finance for payment for land use and amenities charge as claimed is seriously affecting our members.
"When you look at this demand notice that is already terrifying our members across the State, it is killing, obnoxious, undefendable, and uncalled-for.
"A situation where an educational institution is to pay land use and amenities charge, running into millions, considering the fact that schools are social service providers, one wonders what amenities that we are enjoying, one wonders, which charge are we paying for, when every school owners are the one drilling our boreholes, providing water for the school community, wherein school owners depend on electricity that is generated from generator where school owners more often are responsible for the maintenance of access roads to our location's".
NAPPS said the private schools should not be loaded with burden of another levy such as land use and amenities charge considering the effects it will have on the parents who will bear the brunt at the end of the day.
"Government should start thinking of how to make life and make running of our schools more easy and more comfortable for us to do, but it appears that this government is putting more burdens on us through this charge named land use and amenities charge".
"We therefore plead with the government of the day to come to our aid, we are not confronting the government, neither are we fighting them, but we have right within the ambit of the law, to seek for judicial assistance, but before then, we want to make a strong appeal to his Excellency, Prince Dapo Abiodun, the Ministry of Finance to please allow us to breathe. We can't breathe anymore".
"A situation where you ask a school of less than 200 students, just because the school is situated on a property of about six plots of land, to pay N4milion on land use and amenities charge in a year, how much is the gross income of that school in a year that we will have to pay N4million, even if it is N500 thousand, do we have capacity with the current trend of the economy in the country, where parents are owning us heavily., We are indebted to our Teachers in form of salaries, where we have stucked our future in taking loans from banks with huge interest rates.
He said that the association had written many letters of complaint to the relevant authorities, calling on them to intervene to no avail.
"We have come to appeal through you and the general public to help appeal to the Ogun government to give us a respite over issues affecting us as owners of private schools.
"Our problems should not be compounded, rather government should help us to solve them, that's why we are appealing to government to give us a good treatment, this is not a time to take life out of the school owners, the funds are not there, the parents are groaning, we don't want any negative effects that may tarnish the image of this government that we have toiled to put in place".
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