SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Minister of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change, Robert Pickersgill says a number of land owners are shying away from the services provided by the Land Administration and Management Programme (LAMP) because of challenges in paying property taxes.

He explained that in order to obtain their tax certificates, some persons are being required to pay back taxes for the entire plot of land which once constituted the portion they occupied.

“We know of persons who want to secure their title under LAMP, but because their land was once a part of a larger land area on the tax roll, they are being asked to pay the back taxes for the entire parcel that they do not own, before they can obtain a Tax Certificate. This is preventing many of our citizens from taking advantage of LAMP’s services to make applications for their titles,” Pickersgill bemoaned.

The plight of these landowners were highlighted last week by Pickersgill during a LAMP title handing over ceremony for St Elizabeth landowners, held at the St Elizabeth Technical High School’s auditorium in Santa Cruz.

About 50 residents from the parish received titles for the properties they occupy during the ceremony.

Last year a total 80 titles were disbursed in the parish under the programme.

Meanwhile, Pickersgill noted that Government is very concerned that after so many years, the majority of Jamaican landowners still do not have registered titles for their land and gave a commitment that his administration is determined “to correct this imbalance.”

In the meantime, Lisa Campbell, LAMP’s project director expressed that she wants to see a 100 percent increase in the distribution of titles through the programme.

“We have not reached anywhere to what is our goal. Last year for the entire 2011 calendar year LAMP applied for and got just over 900 registered titles. As project director I want to see that number doubled. I want to be able to come to every title ceremony and to say that the target is 2,000 titles per year at a minimum,” Campbell argued.

” But in order for that to be done there has to be much more of the collaboration which we have seen. We have started but we have a far way to go”.

LAMP which was initiated 12 years ago, is jointly funded by the Government of Jamaica and the Inter-American Development Bank. Its main function is to facilitate the provision of land titles to land owners, who for varying reasons have no proof of ownership for their properties.