Annual Report 2010 - Ministry of Finance and Planning

Ministry of Finance and Planning Sri Lanka > Annual Report 2010Other ReformsLand Alienation Policy to Promote Investment and Development Activities (April 2011)The Government having fullyrecognized that national resourcesand public assets should be usedin an economical, effective and anenvironmentally sound manner,recognized the need to revisit thecountry’s land alienation policyin order to further accelerate thedevelopment momentum.In the process of deciding on a newland alienation policy, emphasiswas inter alia given to;• Address investor interestswhile also safeguarding thenational interest.• Ensure that there is a levelplaying field created in relationto investors.• Ensure that there is a coherentand consistent policy on theextent of land that would bemade available for specificpurposes.The following Guidelines havebeen approved by the Cabinet ofMinisters, reflecting the policy of theGovernment on the manner in whichland will be alienated;Agriculture and Manufacturing;• Land alienation for agriculturalpurposes should be donestrictly on the basis of leasearrangements, and the lease termshould not exceed 35 years.• Land alienation for industrialpurposes should also be donestrictly on the basis of leasearrangements and the lease termshould not exceed 35 years.• However, in the case of landrequired for agriculturalor industrial purpose, if theinvestment is over USD 20 Millionand USD 30 Million respectively, asuitable disposition on a long termtenure could be considered.To set up Zones:Industries;• on the basis of a 99 year lease andthe extent of land relating to sucha lease should be in the range of200 – 300 acres.Tourism and Leisure;• on the basis of a 99 year lease, andthe extent of land relating to such alease should be 30 acres or less.• if the required extent of the landis 10 acres or less, the land can bedispossessed as may be approvedby the Cabinet of Ministers interalia considering the quantum ofthe proposed investment.Fiscal Management Efficiency Programme (Commenced in April 2010)The Government consolidated its fiscalmanagement efforts steered throughthe Fiscal Management ReformsProgramme that was commenced in2004 and substantially completed byend 2010. Following the success ofthis initiative, the Asian DevelopmentBank supported a new programme– the Fiscal Management EfficiencyProject (FMEP) in April 2010 coveringthe period till 2014. The overall reformobjective of the FMEP is to createfiscal space through improved revenuecollection and better management ofexpenditure; fiscal and governancereforms and capacity development ofthose in the Ministry of Finance, therevenue collection agencies and thewestern Provincial Council.The improvement of revenue andbetter management of expenditureare primarily to be achieved throughthe three main components envisagedunder the project.i) the introduction of InformationTechnology Systems at theInland Revenue Department ofSri Lanka, ii) the introductionof Information Systems atthe Ministry of Finance andPlanning, and iii) HumanResource Capacity Developmentthrough a structured andcomprehensive trainingprogramme to ensure thatthose serving in the Ministry ofFinance and Planning and therevenue agencies are groomedthrough training in changemanagement, to be able toadopt to work in an automatedenvironment, with sufficientknow- how to make maximumuse of the automated systems.Further, through structuredtraining programmes spanningover three years, subject specificknowledge and expertise ofsuch officers are also to beimproved. Under this componentit is proposed to set-up a newstate of the art Academy withthe necessary infrastructurefacilities in order to sustain theabove training and develop inhouseskills.191