New amendment to Land Act gets Cabinet approval

• Incorporates legal provisions to enable companies listed on CSE to purchase lands in SL
• Amendment gives retrospective effect to land acquisitions carried out prior to 1 April 2018

Cabinet has given its approval to present in Parliament the amended Land (Restrictions on Alienation) Act No. 38 of 2014, incorporating the necessary legal provisions to allow companies listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange to purchase lands in Sri Lanka.

Cabinet gave approval to the proposal, made by Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera last week, to publish the draft Bill prepared by the Legal Draftsman in the Government Gazette and present it in Parliament for approval.

The Cabinet proposal was first presented by the Finance Minister in June as companies listed on the CSE with 50% or more foreign shareholding were prohibited from purchasing lands in Sri Lanka by the Land (Restrictions on Alienation) Act No. 38 of 2014.

While these prohibitions were removed by an amendment to the Act in 2018, its provisions were set apart for land transactions done after 1 April 2018 and no such provisions had been provided for the acquisitions carried out prior to that date.

The new Bill for the removal of the prohibition imposed under Act No. 38 of 2014, was approved by the Cabinet.