Communal grants scrapped from Dec
THE State Government through the Lands and Surveys Department will commence to cancel communal grants in stages throughout Sabah starting December this year, said the Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Shafie Apdal.
After the cancellations, he said the former communal grant lands would be divided into lots and distributed to native beneficiaries.
"The lots will be issued Native Titles (NT) with clear requirements to ensure the NT grants ownership cannot be transferred other than the heirs, cannot be subdivided, used as mortgage, pawned or subleased.
"Additionally, the use of Power of Attorney is not allowed," Shafie said in his winding-up speech for the Chief Minister's Department here yesterday.
He said the State Government or relevant government agencies would assist NT land owners to develop their lands.
"For lands that have joint venture (JV) developments, the land owners will be employed as workers and share the profit as well."
Shafie, who is also the State Finance Minister, said communal grants without JV agreements with government agencies and private companies would be revoked through the subdivision process in accordance with Section 77 of the Sabah Land Ordinance and divided into individual lots for beneficiaries in stages.
Meanwhile, he said communal grants with JV agreements with government agencies would also be abolished through subdivision.
He said the JV partner would survey the individual lots and allocate to each beneficiary.
Shafie added that communal grants with JV agreement with private companies would be cancelled as per Section 112 of the Sabah Land Ordinance and the area would be divided into individual lots for the beneficiaries.
On another note, he said the land premium at Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP) was determined based on the market value at a rate of RM25 per square foot since 2011.
He said the State Government was carrying out a study to reduce the premium of land in KKIP from one per cent to 0.75 per cent of the market value as incentives to investors.
Furthermore, Shafie said the government would continue the policy to maintain Totally Protected Area (TPA) at not less than 30 per cent of the land mass of Sabah by 2025 for environmental conservation.
He said this had been outlined as one of the action plans in the Sabah Forest Policy 2018 that was approved by the State Cabinet on August 1 this year.