Staff Reporter, Dhaka : The Ministry of Land is going to take measures to prevent land development tax evasion and the sale and purchase of land in the name of dummy companies.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Ministry of Land and the ‘Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) of ‘The Ministry of Commerce’ in the Land Ministry’s conference room at the Secretariat on Sunday morning, Yesterday – in this regard. ‘RJSC’ Registrar Sheikh Shoebul Alam NDC and Land Ministry Joint Secretary Dr. Md Jahid Hossain Panir, PAA signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations. Officials from various levels of the Land Ministry and RJSC among others, were present at the event. The signing of this MoU will establish interconnection and synchronization between the Land Service system and the RJSC system.

Allegations of illegal activities by buying and selling land under the guise of shell or dummy joint venture companies and firms are often heard. Besides, it is seen that the ‘land used for commercial or industrial purposes’ which is used for profitable large business activities is shown in the document as ‘land used for residential and other purposes’ to evade land development taxes. As a result, the state is deprived of a huge amount of revenue every year.

It will now be possible to prevent the purchase and sale of land in the name of fake business organizations and the evasion of land development taxes because of the provision to verify the applicable information of the company or organization under the jurisdiction of RJSC in the e-Mutation or Land Development Tax management system. As a result, a huge amount of additional revenue will be deposited in the government treasury for land development tax, which would not have happened so far!

In addition, there will be no clerical errors during e-Mutation because of automatic interconnection of land and RJSC systems; since the information will be automatically verified from the RJSC system before the respective e-Mutation.

The Land Development Tax is determined through Notification and revised if necessary. The last revision was made in 2015. The principal basis for determining land development tax is the type of usage of land.

According to the latest Notification, in the case of general non-agricultural land, where the land development tax rate for land used for commercial purposes is Taka 300 and the land development tax rate for land used for industrial purposes is Taka 150, whereas the land development tax rate for land used for residential and other purposes is only Taka 60. On the other hand, land development tax on agricultural land is significantly lower. No land development tax is required to be paid on agricultural land up to 25 bighas. 50 paise per hundredth part agricultural land for land exceeding 25 bighas up to 10 acres in general case. Above 10 acres of agricultural land, Taka 1 per hundredth part land. The land development tax on non-agricultural and agricultural land may be more or less depending on the area and uses as prescribed in this Notification.

RJSC accords registration of public companies, private companies, foreign companies, trade organizations, societies, partnership firms, etc., and ensures lawful administration of the entities under the provisions of the applicable act.