Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-02-20

Granting Lease Concessions for the lands alienated on Long Term Lease for Agricultural Purposes

- Under the State Land Ordinance, No.8 of 1947, lease concessions have been granted when alienating lands on lease basis for the purpose of constructing houses and for commercial activities. However, since the general procedure for the alienation of lands on commercial basis is not followed, in respect of the alienation of state lands for agricultural purposes on commercial basis under the said Ordinance, the release of state lands has been limited for the large scale agricultural development activities.

Accordingly, targeting the development goals in the agriculture sector of the country, the proposal made by Hon. Gayantha Karunathilaka, the Minister of Lands and Parliamentary Reforms, to grant the following lease concessions in alienating lands for agricultural purposes on long term lease basis under the State Land Ordinance, in future, was approved by the Cabinet:

(i) Refrain from changing a once and for all premium equal to thrice of the annual lease which is so recovered;

(ii) Revision of the lease rental by the addition of an amount of 20% to the lease rental which was applicable to the year previous to the year in which the revision is to be made effective, instead of the revision of the lease rental by a 50% increase once in every 05 years; and

(iii) The addition of 20% to the lease rental recovered at the end of the initial lease period to be treated as the commencement value in the second lease period, when extending the lease period subsequent to the expiry of the initial lease period.