Kerala has lost nearly Rs.40 crore in revenue because of the failure of the government to revise the rents on government grants and leases.
Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac had announced revision of the rents in his Budget for 2009-10 and envisaged an annual revenue of about Rs.20 crore. Most of the plantations on leased land were paying only Rs.1.50 to Rs.5 an acre as rent on forest leases then.
In November 2009, the government amended the Kerala Grants and Leases (Modification of Rights) Rules increasing the rent to Rs.1,300 a hectare, giving effect to the Budget proposal. Only Thrissur and Palakkad districts took steps to implement the rules.
Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran asked other districts to initiate measures to revise the rents at a meeting convened to review the progress in implementing the rules, here on Tuesday.
Forest Minister Binoy Viswom, who also attended the meeting, called for urgent action to collect the rents at the revised rates. (Payment of rents at old rates had been defaulted by some estates and some are not paying anything in the absence of assessment and demand on part of the government).
The Minister recalled that the plantation lobby had been undermining efforts to revise the rent. Though an Act enabling revision of rents was passed in 1980, the revision could not be effected for various reasons. (The Forest Secretary had stayed implementation of the Act in the nineties acting on a representation from the Association of Planters of Kerala. Though the Act was subsequently amended, Presidential assent for the Amendment was delayed for years. It took some more years for the Rules to be amended).
