Abang Johari (centre) leads the cake-cutting ceremony to mark the 108th anniversary of the department.

BINTULU (Feb 10): The Sarawak Land and Survey Department (Landas) collected RM671.44 million in land-based revenue last year, marking an increase from RM600.62 million recorded in 2024.

Its director Datu Awang Zamhari Awang Mahmood said the department also generated a surplus of RM476.3 million, after deducting operational costs of RM195.1 million for its 2,947 personnel statewide.

“The three highest revenue contributors were land premiums amounting to RM369.7 million; land tax at RM203.3 million; and mining royalties at RM67.5 million,” he said in his speech for the opening of Landas Summit 2026 at a hotel here yesterday, where Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg officiated at the ceremony.

Adding on, Awang Zamhari despite the state government having abolished land tax for residential land and agricultural land covering below 100 acres in 2016, land-based revenue continued to contribute significantly to Sarawak’s income.

He also revealed that 490 land acquisition projects were completed last year at a cost of RM412 million, involving 5,333 lots covering 6,710 hectares.

Among the completed projects were 392.8km road connectivity works costing RM90.7 million, Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB)’s transmission lines (RM57.5 million), 40 dilapidated school projects (RM16.9 million), 186 telecommunication towers (RM4.1 million), and the Kampung Datu redevelopment in Sibu (RM15 million).

The Landas director also said the department achieved 100 per cent same-day registration for land transaction instruments last year, reinforcing its commitment to efficient public service delivery.

He said a total of 89,933 land transaction instruments were registered last year, with 81,674 cases – or 90.8 per cent – processed within the first four hours of submission.

“The total transaction value recorded was RM30.85 billion, with land charges registering the highest value at RM15.46 billion, followed by land transfers at RM7.96 billion,” he added.

Awang Zamhari said from these transactions, RM262.28 million in stamp duty was collected by the federal government.

In this respect, he said the Sarawak government, through the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) Action Council platform, continued the negotiations with the federal government on sharing stamp duty revenue, on the basis that land transactions fall under the purview of Sarawak Land Code.

As at last Dec 31, the Title Registration System recorded 980,827 lots registered statewide, covering 3.16 million hectares.

Of these, 779,303 lots were titled land, encompassing 2.45 million hectares; while 201,524 lots were state land covering 717,000 hectares.

Kuching Division recorded the highest number of registered lots, at 222,272; while Miri Division had the largest registered land area, at 682,897.69 hectares.

The ISO 9001 certification for Registration of Instruments had also been expanded to all 12 divisional Landas offices.