Take advantage of extension period, land rent defaulters told 

THE Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Dr Angelina Mabula, has urged the land rent defaulters including public institutions and individuals to take advantage of the three-month extension period to pay their principal debts.

Dr Mabula made the remark recently when opening the second ministerial public-private dialogue (MPPD) which intended to address challenges in the land sector.

The minister said the public institutions owe the government a total of 60bn/- adding that those institutions should use the extended time granted to pay their debts.

“Let me ask the land rent defaulters to properly use the extended granted period…after this period disciplinary measures will be taken in accordance with the law,” Dr Mabula added.

“Let me take this opportunity to inform you that President Samia Suluhu Hassan has once again agreed to extend the amnesty period for the land rent defaulters to pay their principal amount until April 30 2023,”

Before the extension in July last year President Samia issued a six-month exemption on defaulters from July 2022 to 31, December 2022.

In a related development, the Minister has reminded all authorities responsible for land planning in the country to allocate lands for investments in responding to President Samia’s vision of opening doors for investments.

Expounding on the issue of land conflicts resolution, the minister said, the Ministry has continued to cooperate with other Ministries and public institutions to ensure that existing conflicts are handled as well as control the emerging land disputes.

In controlling new land disputes, Dr Mabula said the docket will continue to cooperate with the private sector.

“Recently, the ministry started to implement the large project of Land Tenure Improvement Project (LTIP) which supports the issuance of 1,000,000 Certificates of Right of Occupancy (CROs), 500,000 Certificates of Customary Right of Occupancy (CCROs) and 1,000,000 Residential Licenses (RLs), Dr Mabula said.

Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the docket, Dr Allan Kijazi said the dialogue involved the topic about the position of the private sector in projects managed by the ministry.