Govt. frees 52 Colombo land lots, 26 play grounds for revamping
View(s):By Bandula Sirimanna
The Government is planning to free up 52 state owned land and 26 play grounds coming under the purview of Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) for the restructuring and revamping of such unutilised or underutilised property as revenue generation ventures, CMC sources revealed.
These lands and grounds have already been identified for revamping on a 99-year lease basis in accordance with the plan of transforming Colombo City as a commercial and tourist hub parallel to the Colombo Port City,
The Colombo city covers an area of 37 Sq. Km divided into six districts for its administrative purposes with 106,068 residential properties, 35,604 commercial properties, 10158 state lands and assets and 3,671 exempted properties.
The CMC has registered over 67,000 originally unrecorded assets following a campaign launched in 2021 in a bid to increase its revenue via taxes and registration fees.
The income from property registration which is a one-time payment was around Rs 100 million per year by levying fees at Rs.3,000 to Rs.5,000, contingent on the extent of the property, a senior official of CMC said.
A large number of Colombo residents used to get property ownership registration from the municipality to obtain building plans, to sell the property, to settle family disputes or to mortgage, he added.
Around 80 per cent of annual income of Rs.11 billion is be recovered from property assessment rents levy from 120,000 housing stock in the Colombo city.
But the municipality has failed to collect Rs. 6,200 million which was due as revenue as 5,000 owners of land who have to pay more than Rs 100,000 had defaulted their payments.
In this context the methodology of imposing new “imputed rental income tax in addition to property assessment rent is being devised with careful consideration of all factors to avoid duplication, a senior official of the Treasury said.
Meanwhile President Ranil Wickremesinghe has directed relevant high officials to accord freehold rights or 99-year leases for play grounds owned by the CMC to oldest clubs that have existed for over 100 years. Minister of Tourism, Lands, Sports, and Youth Affairs, Harin Fernando disclosed.
CR & FC are among the clubs that will receive these ownership rights of play grounds after settling all legal and property issues he said.
Under this initiative Isipathana College has been given full management control of Henry Pedris Stadium in Havelock town for the use of schools without playgrounds in the vicinity with the approval of the cabinet.
In a similar manner several other parks and playgrounds will be handed over to sports clubs or private institutions to make optimum use of such facilities for entertainment and sports, he disclosed.
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