Gov’t Reports $25M From Rents in Six Months
The government earned just over $25 million in rental fees from state land leased to private companies in the first six months of the year, according to new figures from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. While the data shows that earning have risen, critics say the government’s figures are low in light of the amount of land leased to private interests in recent years, particularly in the form of economic land concessions. The figures represent a basic account of government spending and income for all of 2011 and January to June 2012. … In March, local human rights group Licadho estimated that 2 million hectares of land was now categorized as economic land concessions.
