Department of Land Reforms and Management (DoLRM) has started investigations to dig out possible unauthorized land holding by individuals as well as registered land developers in cities witnessing real estate bubble. The department has already mobilized land tax offices (LTOs) and land reform offices (LROs) in all major cities and urban centers to identify landowners holding huge stretch of land, exceeding the ceiling as prescribed in more than four decades old Land Reforms Act. “We have mainly intensified the investigations at LTOs and LROs in the Kathmandu Valley, Pokhara, Bhairahawa, Chitwan, Birgunj, Sunsari, Biratnagar and Jhapa, among others,” said a source. The department has asked the offices to mainly dig out property holding of the registered land and housing developers and also dig out possible unauthorized huge landholding by individuals not registered at tax office. The investigation is being carried out to ensure that realty developers are operating complying with the law and also to prevent undue distortion of realty market in any way, said the source. Officials at the department further informed mryepublica.com that the statistics received so far from LTOs already show that some of the realty developers in the Valley hold a huge stretch of land in an unauthorized way, flouting the Land Reforms Act. Going by the LRA, a person and a firm can own as much as 30 ropanis (3.77 acre) in the Kathmandu Valley, 80 ropanis (10.05 acre) in the hills and 11 bigha (17.97 acre) in Tarai districts. Industrial Enterprise Act (IEA) allows industries, including builders and housing developers, to own land beyond the set ceiling, but only on permission of the government. “None of the land and housing developers have so far sought such permission, whereas our findings unveiled that they own as much as 105 ropanis (13.19 acre) of land in a single district of Lalitpur alone,” said the source. He did not disclose the name of the builders though, but stated that for such flouting of laws, the government can go to the extent of seizing the land stretch exceeding the limit. Referring to the three-decade old Land Tax Act, which places the responsibility of controlling the unauthorized landholding by an individual or firms to the chief of LTOs and LROs, the department has assorted that the offices have simply failed to shoulder the responsibility. It has recently issued strict instruction to the LTOs and LROs chiefs to beef up their monitoring on this front as well. Meanwhile, land and housing developers said that the government, considering the nature of their business, has promised to raise landholding cap for them in the new legislation drafted for enactment. But the department officials said verbal assurance does not allow them to overstep the existing provisions. "If they really wanted, they could have easily got the facility under IEA," said the source.
Source: Milan Mani Sharma, Republica