30/07/2008 The Star By Dharmender Singh

THE Selangor government will look into delegating the approving authority over land matters in an effort to speed up the processing of various applications.

Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said he now had to personally sign the approvals for all applications involving land, including the change of land use and transfers of ownership.

He said he had to spend one to two hours a day just signing the applications.

“This only slows the process as I am only endorsing documents that have already been approved,” he said after launching the Selangor Efficient Land Administration Workshop.

Khalid said the state government would, however, have a proper system of checks and balances to ensure there was no abuse of power once the duties were delegated.

He said the current system needed to be improved.

“We will also need to transfer current files to computers to make it easier for land administrators from various agencies to check them before granting approvals,” he said.

Khalid said a faster approval system was necessary as a developer with a plot worth RM100mil would lose about RM5mil a year on average in holding costs and there had been cases where approvals were delayed for up to three years.

He said the state government and local authorities would also stand to gain from the higher taxes collected from developed properties.

“The state government collects about RM1.3bil in land-related taxes each year while municipalities also collect another RM1bil so it is a huge source of income and we want a more efficient system to help it grow,” he said.

He said the state government would also look into allowing land owners and developers to check on the land status or make applications online.

Khalid hoped the workshop organised by the Special Task Force On Land Matters would be able to gather more ideas on how to improve the current system.