The government is also working to introduce a one-stop land registration service under the initiative instead of the present system that requires one to rush to three relevant offices.

The upazilas where the tax could be paid to commercial banks are: Sylhet sadar, Hatzahari in Chittagong district, Shibpur under Narsingdi district, Barisal sadar, Satkhira sadar and Paba in Rajshahi district.

Landowners will also be permitted to deposit land tax in advance for the years to come.

Under the planned one-stop service, three offices -- the survey office, the circle office of revenue and the sub-registrar office -- will be combined into one so that people can obtain all the services needed for the sale and purchase of land in one centralised space.

Talking to reporters after the second meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Land Law Reforms, Land Minister M Shamsul Islam said the committee is working to bring massive reform to the land law.

The reforms are also aimed at computerising the land management system and simplifying registration system.

Law Minister Moudud Ahmed, Agriculture Minister MK Anwar and State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Ukil Abdus Sattar attended the meeting. Land Secretary Azad Ruhul Amin, Law Secretary Asaduzzaman and members of the sub-committee were also present.

At the meeting, the three-member sub-committee headed by Habibul Awal, an additional secretary of the law ministry, presented a draft report on the amendment to the existing laws and the enactment of new ones necessary to bring the land laws up to date.

The land minister said land reform is an urgent task as land disputes have been identified as one of the root causes of social and family unrest. He said over 10 lakh cases are pending with courts and around 80 per cent of the cases are related to land.

The minister said steps have been taken to computerise the entire land management system and prepare a prescribed form for land registration. The proposed form would include all necessary data and it is hoped that it can be limited to a single page to facilitate the registration process.

He said tougher law would also be introduced to curb forged documentation and the sale of a particular piece of land to more than one person. He regretted that the laws relating to the punishment for forgery are too complex to be effective.

Terming the land management issue a complex one, the minister said the government is determined to make the system transparent and free from corruption.

He said under the new system, there will be only one document with a map of the area concerned for each piece of land and all necessary data would be kept in a computerised system.

The minister said the sub-committee is due to submit its final report next month and the planned reforms will be finalised in the cabinet committee in light of the report. However, he said it would take time to complete the task of the committees because the land laws and system are highly complex.

He hoped the land reforms would greatly curb corruption, halt harassment and make the registration process simple, permitting the entire nation to benefit from the up-to-date system.

Once the reforms are implemented, social and family unrest would reduce drastically all over the country, the minister said. "If we examine the lakhs of pending cases, we will find that most of them are related to land. Even murders originated due to land disputes," he observed and hoped the new system would reduce the number of land cases filed.