Law on land conversion adopted

The Serbian government adopted today a Law on conversion of the right of use to the right of land ownership which enables conversion of the right of use to the right of ownership or the right of a longterm lease on a 99-year period of time, along with a market price reimbursement.

The reimbursement will be shared on two equal parts, where the first goes into the Agency for Restitution, and the second one into the budgets of Serbia, Vojvodina and local self-governments.

Minister of construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic stated during the debate that it was estimated that in the following two or three years would be gathered around EUR 630 million for the Fund for Restitution, and equal sum for the budget.

According to her, the subject of the law is 5,310 hectares, or 0.80% of the total 661,000 hectares of the building land.

This law has to complete an ownership transformation over the local building land, to bring it straight to the point and to increase budget revenues of the Republic of Serbia, Vojvodina and local self-governments.

According to previous regulations , Mihailovic explained, land conversion of different subjects, such as companies in the process of privatization or bankruptcy and sport associations, as rightholders of the land use, was suspended. The new law enables conversion into the right of ownership and the right of longterm lease with a certain reimbursement on market price.

Opposition members of Prliament have criticized the draft, emphasizing that it should be withdrawn due to the fact that it is unconstitutional and only useful for tycoons. The Parliament has also adopted amandments to the Law on removal of flood consequences in Serbia, in order to prolong the possibility to help both individuals and legal entities affected by this natural disaster.