Venezuela to Impose Tax on Idle Lands

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President Hugo Chavez's administration plans to begin taxing idle farm lands in April, Venezuela's tax agency said Tuesday.

Under legislation approved in 2001, landholders must pay a tax if they fail to register their lands and put them to adequate use by following a government-designed production plan.

Jose Gregorio Vielma Mora, superintendent of the tax agency, told the local Globovision television channel that government officials have yet to establish rates for the levy.

The tax falls in line with Chavez's drive to establish what he calls "21st-century socialism," redistributing the country's immense oil wealth to the poor, the agency in a statement.

Chavez claims large landholdings are responsible for the failure of agricultural production in Venezuela, which depends heavily of oil production for economic development.


http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/01/23/ap3353771.html

of Latin America, where huge tracts of land are "owned" by families who usually aren't even resident and don't ust them. It's a heritage of the Spanish colonialism where aristocrats received huge land grants.

While some of that happened in the United States, it was never to such a large degree, and was only in a few of the original colonies (like Virginia). Large parts of the United States were settled by homesteaders and variations of pioneers who settled small, individual family farms. It really made a difference in our economies and political structures.

I hope that this can be done in a manner that is consistent with preserving rainforests.


http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/s-Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela is experiencing one of the most rapid rates of deforestation in the tropics. The forests are under pressure from logging, mining and hydropower projects, road building, and agricultural ‘frontier’ colonisation.

There are approximately 350,000 indigenous peoples in Venezuela, from 28 distinct ethnic groups. Historically, these people have largely been excluded from any participation in decision-making over land uses. According to a 1992 census, 71% of the country's indigenous people did not possess property titles and 63% lacked access to schools.

The government of Hugo Chavez has taken a more progressive approach to indigenous peoples, providing them representation in the legislature and paving the way for wider demarcation of "indigenous habitats".

It works.

The tropical attraction can not be overlooked and Venezuela can draw worldwide.

The only person they could find to defend Hugo was a Center for Socialism scholar rebutted by a Heritage Foundation Flunky. She says the people win. Heritage Flunky says the "people lose." So why did they elect him three time? People found out about Bush but it two stolen elections.

Chavez claims large landholdings are responsible for the failure of agricultural production

does this mean large landowners will be evicted?

doing a little research isn't too difficult either. :-)

Government officials have begun inspecting large estates, many of which encompass more than 5,000 hectares (12,350 acres), to determine if they are "underused" or if their ownership may be legally disputed.

Critics of the land-reform initiative claim it violates property rights outlined in Venezuela's Constitution.



I agree about the research. This story aint over for at least 18 months since the Venezuela constitution has been usurped legally.

"underused" land .....sounds like a collective factory farm is on the misty horizon.

maybe not but an alarmingly possibility that we will see a return of collective farming? maybe a second chinese cultural revolution if certain urban dwellers are sent out to do the potato planting.

May not be off on the face of this, though Oil (Capitalism) makes his experiment possible. I doubt Hugo is doing anything more than finding a way to redistribute land (wealth). He seems to be doing all sorts of things at once. Some parallel historic U.S. policies (TVA, Rural Electrification, Oklahoma Sooner Land Rush :-) )

Probably still does. Lots of localities used to impose a punitive tax on "unimproved lands," the idea being that if someone invested time and money to avoid the unimproved lands tax, they were going to produce something valuable--which was also taxable. In some cases, declaring land unimproved was the same thing as declaring it abandoned, which would allow others to snap it up for a song.

In many cases I've personally seen, "unimproved land" was used as an excuse to separate American Indians from their property rights to territory. Many tribes were migratory and would leave some of their land fallow for long periods before returning to hunt the game which would rebound there.

European-Americans would declare the land unimproved or abandoned, and seize it. It didn't matter that the seizure was highly illegal--once the land was in the hands of the waschichin the Indians might get paid for it or they might not, but they sure as hell weren't getting it back.

There would be a certain irony in things if Hugo Chavez were using the same principles to liberate unused farmland from the wealthy former oligarchs who use their ownership to control the people who could be using the land. However, I'm not sure if things are any more fair going in the other direction.

I'm sure McDonalds corp is champing on the bit but I see doom and gloom in the global warming front.

I'm having a hard time figuring this out for myself.

to the worlds rainforest's ?
I've seen the projected rain forest map of the years 2020,2030 and 2050. most of the worlds "idle lands " will be barren of jungle. Costa Rica is a better model of idle land management. This issue will continue unfortunately even though it is 'inconvenient' to talk about it under certain conditions.

To much Chavez obbsession around here.

I am not a Chavez hater, but I frankly don't care what they do in Venezueala.



P.S.
"put them to adequate use by following a government-designed production plan."

Sounds like communism to me

Chavez is fighting the greatest danger the world faces today: Global Corporations.

They steal, plunder, abuse, pollute and control the world's resources and its people. His success scares the hell out of the Elites because it forces them to hide, or either change or defend their operations.

He has yet to be a threat to any one though consolidation of power may be hard to defend as power may corrupt even Chavez.

Also, his country is our LARGEST OIL SUPPLIER. What happens there is important.

put your money where your mouth is. Don't spend all your time trying to argue about their choice of Presidents, or at the very least, go ahead and start getting some information on the subject you're attempting to discuss.

I belive that a government should have no say on what you do with your own land.

national resources belonging to the commons and benefiting everyone, not just the rich.

There is the option of distributing land to individuals and limiting how much any one person can own, as in Kerala.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=871

Taiwan did exactly the same thing. The only way they allowed people to become rich was by closing off every single avenue to wealth except for export-oriented industries. "Land to the tiller" was implemented in 1953.

http://www.taiwan-agriculture.org/taiwan/rocintro4.html