(Borneo Post; May 26, 2007)

MIRI: The State government yesterday announced its new land policy which comes into effect immediately.

Under the new policy, land premium is lower and owners are given the choice to take either a 60-year lease or a 99-year lease, payments for which may be made in installments over a period of 10 years.

Land owners can also choose to renew their lease at their own time any time before their lease expires. This is different from the previous practice which only allowed renewal applications to be submitted only when a lease had five years more to expiry.

However, those wanting to get a 99-year lease would have to to fork out an additional 30 per cent on top of the basic land premium imposed.

The new procedure would reduce the government’s coffers by up to RM10 million annually of the revenue collected from land premium and rent in Sarawak, said Second Minister of Planning and Resource Management Dato Sri Awang Tengah Ali Hassan when he made the much-awaited announcement in a press conference after launching the e-payment for premium and annual rent, in Miri yesterday.

According to him, Sarawak is the only state in the country to allow land premium to be paid in installments up to 10 years instead of a lump sum as generally practised in the country.

For town land, premium for 60 years’ lease is a flat 25 per cent for residential and commercial and agriculture use categorised as not exceeding RM10,000 per acre. Previously the rate was between 25 and 50 per cent.

For suburban land, a 35-per cent rate is imposed for commercial, industrial and office/institution land and 25 per cent for recreational, residential and agriculture land categorised as not exceeding RM5,000 per acre.

Country land is fixed at 25 per cent for all the categories of land use except for agriculture which is fixed at RM200 per acre.

However, the minister shall decide on the amount of lower-than-normal premium, including token sum, for deserving cases involving the low income group, those living below poverty line and others based on merits of each case.

Commercial land premium has been reduced from the original 25-61 per cent to 25-40 per cent of land value.

The premium for agricultural land use categorised as town and suburban land has been maintained at 25 per cent. However, if a land is utilised, a respective premium not exceeding RM10,000 and RM5,000 would be applied.

The announcement yesterday was eagerly awaited since Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud promised mid-week that an announced would be made before the month is out.

An air of expectancy hung over ceremony to launch the Land and Survey Online Payment in Miri yesterday morning when Tengah made his appearance.

Tengah said the new policy had taken into consideration implications on the people, social needs, standard of living and needs of low income group on the one hand, and the interest of the State government which was expecting to lose a hefty RM8 million annually.

The Land and Survey Department has a record of 523,452 land titles in Sarawak of which only 37,331 or seven per cent will expire by 2015. Some 90 per cent of the 2,685 applications have been approved.

“This shows that the issue of land lease renewal is not a big issue as manipulated by certain quarters and the government will continue to refine this policy,” he said.

The annual land rent in Sarawak is the lowest in the country, and residential rate is only RM0.03-RM0.14 sen per square metre compared to RM0.10-RM0.72 sen in KL’s Federal Territory (five times greater) and RM1.10-4.40 (30 times higher) in Perak,

The agriculture rate in Sarawak is RM2.50 per hectare, the lowest in the country compared to Selangor (RM226), Federal Territory (RM2,275), Perak (RM1,081) and Johore (RM300).

The commercial rate at RM0.11-1.08 per sq m is very cheap compared to Selangor (RM3.09) or RM0.46-6.80 in Johor.

Tengah said the approved premium rates were reasonable, fair and would not burden landowners especially for residential and agriculture lands.

He said in certain countries like Australia, governments did not guarantee agriculture land lease renewal as they were regarded as future land bank for government development for city or town expansion and infrastructure development.

According to him, the State government reviews every two years land earmarked for acquisition under Section 47 of Land Code. Such reviews had resulted in the release of 90 per cent of 3,594 marked such between 1973 and last April.

“Every two years, those not required are released back to the respectively owners and only 297 are under Section 47 notice now,” he added.

Present yesterday were the State director of Land and Survey Department Sudarsono Osman, Assistant Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communication Lee Kim Shin, Pujut assemblyman Andy Chia, Lambir assemblyman Aidan Wing, Telang Usan assemblyman Lihan Jok and Bekenu assemblywoman Rosey Yunus.