Land survey fees down to Sh150,000

Dar es Salaam. Land owners in Tanzania will start paying Sh150,000 only for land formalisation,  according to the minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Mr William Lukuvi.
Previously, people had to pay Sh250, 000 to surveying companies to formalise their land, the amount, which many citizens could not afford.
Giving the directive to the companies during a press conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the minister directed surveying companies to start charging Sh150,000 only across the country.
“However, we understand that some of the land owners may still be struggling to pay Sh150,000, so we have also come up with a programme of providing the land licences whose expiry is five years for Sh5, 000 only,” he said.
The minister elaborated that the land licences will enable those who will fail to pay Sh15,000 to access loans from financial institutions and pay for the land formalisation.
Last month, the government launched a programme to issue land licences in urban areas and so far 60,000 have been provided to land owners in Dar es Salaam.
The minister said: “The government projects to collect Sh24 billion in three months from 500, 000 land licences in Dar es Salaam Region only.”
Mr Lukuvi noted that identifying land owners in the city will improve the level of revenue collection since nearly 70 per cent of the city dwellers were not paying land taxes.
“We introduce the process of licencing land plots because the process of formalisation can take a long time and it’s also costly compared to licences, which can be acquired for Sh5,000 only,” he said.