Wen Jiabao unlikely to fulfil land pledge to farmers
After NPC Standing Committee fails to vote to raise farmers' share of the profit on land sales, bill may not pass before premier's March exit
Premier Wen Jiabao is unlikely to fulfil his promise to introduce regulations to raise farmers' share of profits from land sales before his term ends in March after the National People's Congress Standing Committee failed to vote on a draft amendment to the Land Administration Law on Friday.
The draft was passed by the State Council in late November but will not be enacted for at least two months, with the next meeting of the NPC Standing Committee scheduled for February.
Experts said that even if the draft was passed at that meeting, it would be impossible to roll out regulations for a detailed compensation scheme within a couple of weeks, especially as Friday's meeting had not authorised the State Council to draft such regulations.
Professor Jiang Mingan , of Peking University's law school, said the key sticking point was whether there should be a cap on compensation for requisitioned land and how much it should be.
The Land Administration Law says that compensation to farmers should be calculated based on the land's original use and kept below 30 times the land's average yearly production for the past three years. The draft amendment takes out the cap and instead says "fair compensation should be paid to ensure that farmers' lives will be improved and their long-term livelihood can be guaranteed".
Jiang said the revision gives farmers stronger bargaining power but would exert a great deal of pressure on developers and local governments, who make a large proportion of their revenue by requisitioning land at low prices and selling it to developers at much higher prices.