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| Friday, 11 June 2004 |
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Politics | |
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| Govt to reintroduce 100% tax imposed for land purchase by foreigners by Uditha Kumarasinghe The Government has decided to reintroduce the 100 per cent tax imposed for the purchase of local lands by foreigners which was removed by former UNF Government. The Government reached this decision at Cabinet on Wednesday, Agriculture, Livestock and Lands Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake told a media briefing yesterday. The Minister said: "Accordingly every foreigner who purchases local land has to pay 100 per cent tax i.e., an amount equivalent to the full value of the land. However, the former UNF Government which assumed office in 2001 took immediate measures to remove this tax imposed on foreigners buying land locally. Due to this decision taken by the former Government, large extents of land especially in the southern coastal area such as Beruwala, Aluthgama, Ambalangoda and Galle have been purchased by various foreign nationals at very low prices, he said. Therefore Cabinet which met on Wednesday decided to reimpose this 100 per cent tax with the intention of preventing further purchase of these valuable lands by the foreigners, the Minister said. Dissanayake said the Cabinet also decided to appoint a special committee to probe the disposal of huge areas of local lands to foreigners during the past two years of the former UNF Government. Through the Land Ownership Registration Program introduced by the former Government, arrangements had been made to vest huge land areas to foreigners through political intervention. The last regime through this programme attempted to remove all rules and regulations which hitherto were an obstacle to this process. The Minister said all such details and dealings would be made known to the public shortly. He said the Lands Ministry will take initiatives to amend the existing Lands Act in order to safeguard the lands of locals by preventing the attempts made by foreigners to purchase local lands, the Minister added. |
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