Chang said there was no reason for the government to continue collecting land tax from the people given the increased revenue gained from the state sales tax, with a cumulative RM15.8 billion collected from 2019 to last year.
“Let this windfall from the increased revenue be not just a figure on paper, but be translated into a visible and tangible benefit to be enjoyed by all Sarawakians,” she said in a statement, Borneo Post reported.
She said since the land and survey department reclassified land categories in June 2022, there had been “many indignant voices of unhappiness” over the hefty premiums landowners must pay to renew their titles.
“A landowner in Sungai Bidut was flabbergasted when the premium amounted to RM14,410 – an increase of 2,321.85% from the RM595 his neighbour had paid for his land in April 2022.
“These two parcels of land, existing side by side, are more or less the same size and have been reclassified from country to suburban land, hence the leap in the premium payable,” she said.
Chang said the majority of agricultural land owned by farmers has been passed down from their forefathers.
“The land is the only asset they depend on to support their simple livelihoods.
“To demand that they come up with hefty premiums before their land title can be renewed denies these people one of their very basic rights – to own land without any hindrance,” she said.
She said the premiums required to renew land titles confirmed that the state government practised a “regressive land policy”.
Despite Sarawak’s prosperity through the increased revenue from the state sales tax since 2019, the government had prevented the people from owning land without any land tax, whether in the form of quit rent or hefty premiums, she said.
“This is regressive because even in the Brooke era, applicants were eligible to lease government land for up to 900 years. Since the late 2000s, the Sarawak government has imposed a policy that perpetuity titles (999 years) are to have their terms reduced to 90-year leases after being developed.
“Presently, if a landowner wants to apply to extend their title to a 90-year lease from the usual 60-year lease, the individual would have to pay an additional 30% on top of the existing rate.
“Since failing to pay these premiums would cause the land to be reverted to state land, Sarawakians are forever deemed tenants leasing land from the state, who is the real owner of all the land in Sarawak.”