The Supreme Court's ruling on land conversion has been a source of concern for landowners applying for the same. The Supreme Court has ruled that if the paddy field or wetland in the possession of the applicant is more than 25 cents, then the applicant will have to pay 10 percent of the fair value of the entire land as a conversion fee. In Kerala, where the price of land and fallow paddy fields are skyrocketing, even 10 percent of the fair value is unfair in the current situation. It should be remembered that not all owning land more than 25 cents is a crorepati. The government brought this amendment with the good intention of helping the people by converting the lands and wetlands that have been lying fallow for years into useful ones for their own needs.

Accordingly, land up to 25 cents and wetlands have been exempted from the conversion fee. This decision will provide relief to lakhs of landowners. However, even if the land to be converted exceeds 25 cents by one cent, i.e. even if it is 26 cents, the condition is that ten percent of the fair value fixed for the adjacent land should be paid as a conversion fee for the entire land. When someone approached the High Court against this, the verdict was that the conversion fee has to be paid only for the land exceeding 25 cents. This verdict has now been quashed by the Supreme Court. A fee of 10 percent of the fair value has to be paid for changing the land type up to one acre. If it is more than one acre, 20 percent fee will be charged.

It is alleged that the fair value of land has been set at an excessive level even in rural areas of Kerala. The Revenue Department's position is that granting a discount on land conversion fees will cause a huge loss of revenue to the government. Considering that the government has earned Rs 1510 crore in conversion fees till last October, it will naturally be difficult to give a discount. The Revenue Department had issued a notice to the petitioner who went to the High Court asking him to pay Rs 1.74 lakh as a fee for the conversion of 36.65 cents of land. The court accepted the petitioner's argument that it would be sufficient to pay a fee only for the 11.65 cents of land that exceeds the 25 cents. The Revenue Department has won the lottery after the Supreme Court ruled on the appeal petition against the high court ruling.

Kerala is the state with the lowest per capita land area. In that situation, the only recourse is to use fallow fields and other land for building houses and other purposes. The high fair value of land is a setback for conversion applicants. The government can consider reducing the conversion fee considering the high land price in the state. The government's attempt to generate income by extorting landowners is unjust. The government is imposing an excessive burden on the people by increasing land tax and revenue fees. Not even the lease amount is being collected from the big capitalists who illegally occupy thousands of acres of plantations. There are tens of thousands of houses here that are empty without people living there. What fees are being collected from them?