Munima Sultana

Land administration, land management and record system of the country, long plagued with inefficiency and corruption, can only be addressed through significant conceptual, legal and institutional changes, said a report of BICF.

Registration of deeds and maintenance of land records are done by two different departments using "19th century methods and principles" resulting in overlapping and duplication, the report added.

Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund (BICF), a facility of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), prepared the report based on a study for improvement of registering real property rights and transaction in Bangladesh.

The IFC's 2009 Cost of Doing Business (CODB) survey ranked the country's property registration function 175th out of 181 countries as 244 days are generally needed to register property transfer involving eight steps and costing about 10 per cent of the property value.

The BICF study found that there was total lack of coordination among the six organizations that are involved in land transfer and registration and reported, "The main problems are not the procedures, but rather the lack of management system, modern business equipment and efficient human resources to carry out the steps of the procedures."

The economic losses owing to corruption, inefficiency, litigation and civil court cases would run to billions of taka annually and the situation will not improve unless modern technology is introduced.

Land related civil and criminal cases accounts for 70-80 percent of all cases and often drag on for 20 years or more.

BICF also noted that a great deal of potential economic leverage is not being utilized as the country's mortgage market, which depends on immovable property, is very small compared to other countries.

Total value of outstanding mortgages is roughly one per cent of the GDP while it is 2.5 per cent in India and 10 per cent and more in many developing countries. The developed countries range is generally 25 to 60 per cent of the GDP.

Owing to reduced price of land for registration by the government and increased rate of registration and other fee/taxes, much mismanagement and corruption is found in land registration. The government do not have control on its own land even, the report added.

Fixation of tax on selling price and fixing of tax at high rate creates the tendency of showing the selling price at a reduced amount at the time of registration and this difference is responsible in generating 'black money' in the economy.

The report pointed out that Directorate of Land Records and Surveys (DLRS), responsible for preparing record of land (khatian) and map of the plots, could not complete its own survey work on time due to constant transfer of land.

As different land related surveys including celestial and regional surveys consume 30 to 50 years to be completed, the BICF suggested to change the primitive system by updating the records and the maps through use of technology.

To come out of the situation, BICF suggested ensuring availability of necessary data speedily through computerized database, collection of information, updating on regular basis, reorganization and coordination of organizational activities for quick efficient registration and mutation on the commercial line.

BICF said the problems like lengthy deed registration procedure can be solved through computerized data preservation system and getting data from the server of local area network (LAN).

The BICF report also suggested for reforms in land related offices and their works. It said information technology offers opportunity to deal with these issues.