Tighter controls over land supply unveiled
The State Council has announced tighter controls over land supply for property and industrial development projects, pledging to increase compensation to farmers for seized land and impose higher fees on land transactions to combat widespread illegal land use.
To counter strong resistance from local officials, the State Council said it would hold leading officials at all levels responsible for land use and the protection of farming under their jurisdictions, Xinhua reported yesterday. It would also pursue criminal charges against those involved in major illegal land grabs.
The State Council issued the directive at a meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday, but it was only made public yesterday.
The meeting was held one day before Mr Wen warned at a national teleconference with local officials that the mainland economy was in danger of overheating, urging them to support the central government's macroeconomic control measures.
The mainland leadership has listed tighter controls on land use as one of the key weapons to rein in surging investment in infrastructure and new industrial projects, which need to be built on sites converted from farmland. But local authorities, keen to attract domestic and overseas investments to build factories and boost regional economies, have frequently ignored central government directives on the protection of farmland.
According to earlier state media reports, 12,241.7 hectares of rural land was illegally converted to non-agricultural use in the first five months of this year, 20 per cent more than in the same period last year. In some main cities, illegal land use accounted for 90 per cent of the new land requisitions for non-agricultural use, officials said.
In a statement yesterday, the State Council said the total volume of land available for construction was growing too fast and there had been an over-expansion in converting land at low costs for industrial use. 'Illegal land use and illegal occupation of farming land have remained unabated despite frequent bans,' Xinhua quoted the statement as saying.
Promising tighter management of land use, the State Council appears determined to inflate land requisition costs to deter illegal land use.
It said it would increase compensation to farmers and ensure the living standards of affected farmers would not drop and their long-term livelihood was secured.
It would also impose new taxes on land transactions and set minimum prices on land for industrial use. This move is aimed at preventing local officials from taking bribes to sell land on the cheap.
The State Council has promised to mete out tougher punishments including jail sentences for officials who are involved in illegal land activities, with teams of inspection officers to be sent out across the nation to tackle the widespread illegal use of land.
