13 hrs ago
Bengal Plans Land Ceiling Relaxation to Attract Industrial Investment
West Bengal wants to make it easier for companies to build factories.
Current rules generally limit private buyers to 24 acres of land.
Buying more land requires government approval and can take a long time.
If companies buy extra land without approval, they may have to pay a large fee to keep it.
The government is considering changing these rules.
It may allow companies to keep extra land if they promise to build an industry within a set period.
Officials are also studying a system where companies and landowners make deals with the state acting as a mediator.
If a company does not build the promised industry on time, the government could take back the extra land.
The Bengal government is considering relaxing land ceiling rules for investors who establish industries within a specified timeframe.
The proposal could amend Section 14Y of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955, and may reach the Assembly’s winter session.
Private entities currently cannot hold more than 24 acres without approval when purchasing ceiling-surplus land.
Officials are also considering land pooling, with companies buying land at market rates and potentially offering sellers shares.
Investors who fail to establish industries by a proposed deadline could lose the surplus land to the government.
- Who
- The West Bengal government, prospective investors, private companies, and landowners.
- What
- The government is considering relaxing land ceiling rules and introducing a modified land pooling system to attract industrial investment.
- Where
- West Bengal, India.
- When
- The proposal could be introduced during the Assembly’s winter session; an industrial deadline may be set at about three years.
- Why
- The government wants to attract investment despite difficulties obtaining sufficiently large, contiguous parcels of land.
Investment Flexibility
Land Protection and Accountability
Relaxing the land ceiling
Investment Flexibility
Officials and prospective investors argue that easier rules would help companies assemble land and establish industrial units more quickly.
Land Protection and Accountability
The proposal would still require an industrial-use condition, with the government able to vest the surplus land if the investor misses the deadline.
How to assemble land
Investment Flexibility
A modified land pooling system could allow companies to purchase land from owners at market rates while offering shares in some cases.
Land Protection and Accountability
Officials acknowledge that arranging sufficiently large, contiguous parcels remains difficult because of fertile soil and fragmented landholdings.
Regularising existing surplus land
Investment Flexibility
The proposed system could make regularisation simpler, use a single-window process, and remove additional charges.
Land Protection and Accountability
Under the current system, land bought without prior approval can be vested in the government, limiting investors’ holdings unless the land is regularised.
Key facts
- Current land ceiling
- Private entities generally cannot hold more than 24 acres when purchasing land.
- Proposed legal change
- The government may amend Section 14Y of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955.
- Approval issue
- Investors currently need prior government approval to buy ceiling-surplus land.
- Regularisation cost
- Surplus land bought without approval may require payment of 95% of its market price to the government for regularisation.
- Proposed safeguard
- Investors may have to establish an industry within a specified timeframe, potentially three years.
- Possible land pooling model
- Private companies would buy land at market rates and may provide sellers a percentage of company shares on a case-by-case basis.
- Other state examples
- Officials cited land-ceiling or land-pooling approaches in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh.
Quotes
A senior Bengal government bureaucrat
Senior bureaucrat involved in the state government’s investment and land-policy proposal
“The state government is working on a proposal to make it easier for prospective investors to hold ceiling-surplus land provided they set up industries within a timeframe.”
telegraphindia.com
“If investors can be given some relaxations on land ceiling, they can arrange land on their own and set up new units in the state.”
telegraphindia.com
Sources
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