The registration of lands in Malta and Gozo needs a complete new departure from the erstwhile concept of a Central Registry of Lands, Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt told Parliament yesterday.

Replying to a question by Labour MP Owen Bonnici, Dr Gatt said that only on Monday Prof. Max Ganado had given him a new draft of proposed amendments to the current legislation, following a wide-ranging study of foreign laws on land registration.

Dr Gatt said the new proposals were more radical than the previous ones, and looked forward to being in a position to launch public consultation within the next few months. Certain concepts needed to be completely rewritten and he could promise a very interesting period for the Government Notary and notaries in general.

There would certainly not be any changes without long and intensive public consultations, he said.

The issue arose when, replying to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Adrian Vassallo, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said that up to the end of June the book value of expropriated lands for which the government had not yet paid amounted to €47.5 million. The amount did not include any appreciation in the value of the lands because there would need to be a revised valuation. Neither did it include the interests owed to the former proprietors.

In some cases the payment was very long outstanding because ownership had never been determined.

Rising on a supplementary question, Opposition Whip Joe Mizzi asked Minister Fenech what had become of the proposal to accelerate the payment for long-standing expropriations. Mr Fenech said that a few years ago the government had proposed to issue bonds that could be redeemed from a special fund within a number of years, but talks with the EU had established that the total value of the bonds would immediately show up in the deficit.

The government now intended to step up payments as much as possible, with an emphasis on getting the smallest payments out of the way first.