Africa-Press – Botswana. The survey of over 18 000 plots at Ngwato Land Board is in progress and the plots will be available for allocation by June, says the land board secretary, Mr Godiramang Moepeng
Speaking at a one-day stakeholders’ workshop in Serowe Monday, he said as of March the land board had allocated 996 43 from the target of over 22 000.
“Most pending allocations were as a result of need to resolve issues of compensation, issues of allocation with bogosi and those outsourced to private surveyors,” quipped Mr Moepeng.
He also said there was a cumulative figure of 125 registered secure land titles and 40 new applications which were submitted to deeds registry this past week.
He encouraged land owners to apply for the secure land tittle.
Meanwhile Ngwato Land Board chairperson Mr David Modisagape said as an organ entrusted with a mammoth task of overseeing the administration of state and tribal land, granting rights to use land as well as regulating land use, the board needed a pool of stakeholders to carry out its duties.
He said they expected stakeholders to be their mouth piece as it was evident that people were still not well informed about the role of the land board.
Mr Modisagape noted that they were in need of surveyors, technical officers and treasurers.
He said to address the shortage, they had engaged private surveyors in some areas to help with land surveying.
One of the stakeholders, Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) explained that they worked with land boards to ensure that Batswana and non-citizens enjoyed their land rights.
BURS revenue manager-tax services at Palapye, Mr Keletso Nyati said Transfer Duty (Amendment) Act (TDA) which came into operation on May 3 sought to address implementation challenges that included the impact of the 30 per cent transfer duty payable by non-citizens on transfer of immovable property as well as provision of valuation reports for all transactions irrespective of exemption status.
“The TDA provides for exemption from payment of duty by certain beneficiaries, however the Act has a requirement for beneficiaries to provide valuation reports for all transactions irrespective of the exemption status of the beneficiaries,” he noted.
Mr Nyati said the amendment Act removed the requirement for valuation and lodging of declarations with the commissioner general for exempt transactions like transfer of immovable property to heirs for inheritance purposes to widows/widowers or children of the deceased, to citizen first time home owners, former spouses following divorce and corrections of mistakes regarding registration of transfers.
Mr Nyati also noted the increased exemption threshold from P1 000 00 to P1 500 00 on property acquired by Botswana citizens. He said this increase affected transactions whose sale agreements were concluded on or after May 03 or where actual transfer or possession of immovable property occurred on or after May 03.
He emphasised that for all transactions involving transfer of immovable property of P1 000 and below to citizens, BURS would issue clearance letters for transactions already lodged with it.
He said citizen transfers of P1 000 and below that were not yet lodged with BURS should be lodged with land board or deeds degistry.
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