BUJUMBURA September 3rd (ABP) – Three ministers, namely the Minister of the Interior, Community Development and Public Security, Mr. Gervais Ndirakobuca, that of Justice, Mrs. Jeanine Nibizi and that of Infrastructures, Equipment and Social Housing, Dr. Déogratias Nsanganiyumwami were invited Wednesday September 1 to the Kigobe hemicycle to answer questions from MPs.
The chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts, Finance, Economic Affairs and Planning, Mr. Nestor Ntahomvukiye, indicated that during the recent field visits of deputies in all the provinces of the country, the observation was that Decree No. 1/31 of 4 November 2008 removing taxes for the registration or sale of plots and the ministerial ordinance of April 2021 recalling the application of this decree were not taken into consideration by the administrative, from the base to the top. So they took the initiative to meet with the ministries concerned to ask for clarifications.
During that meeting, the MPs asked Minister Ndirakobuca what his ministry intends to do to stop the collection of those taxes which are done illegally. He replied that the ministry intends to send people to all the municipalities and provinces of the country to inspect and verify the implementation of these laws. In addition, he said, the ministry will also put in place sanctions against anyone who breaks the law.
Concerning certain communes which do not have land services, Minister Ndirakobuca promised that the government will do everything to correct this shortcoming.
When asked by MPs whether people living in villages that have received plots from the State can have access to land certificates or land titles, the Minister in charge of the Interior replied that the latter cannot benefit from those documents because, he explained, those people did not respect the agreements made with the government.
In connection with the anarchic constructions which can be observed on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, that authority has promised to talk about it with its colleague in charge of the Environment to remedy it.
The Minister of Justice, who spoke about the state of play of land registration during the past five years, said that 12,831 land properties have been registered at the level national.
Regarding the collaboration of the Ministry of Justice with other ministries, including that of the Interior, concerning land properties, Mrs. Nibizi said that land information is exchanged in order to work in synergy and sensitize the people to have the habit of registering land. She also pointed out that this ministry is in the process of decentralizing the management of land titles and the national cadastre to bring that service closer to the people. On that occasion, she indicated that the government is in the process of making corrections for the plots which have been registered in an anarchic manner.
To the question of the MPs who asked if the land certificate granted after the registration of land properties in rural areas can have the same value as the land title granted for urban plots to have access to loan in banks, Minister Nibizi said declared that it is time to make a small revision of the laws in this matter in order to see how these two documents can give to the same degree access to loan.