The 2027 Budget allocates Rs 800 million to the Bimsaviya land titling programme and Rs 140 million to modernising land records, alongside a plan to bring the plans of 3.5 million land parcels into a digital system.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake announced the funding while presenting the Budget, EconomyNext reported.
The allocations
Rs 800 million goes to strengthening Bimsaviya, the programme that issues clear, legally recognised land titles.
Rs 140 million has been allocated “for registering land titles, digitizing land records, and modernizing land information systems,” the President said.
The 3.5 million parcels
The larger commitment is structural rather than monetary. The government plans to integrate the plans of 3.5 million land parcels — currently held as hard copies by the Government Survey Department — into its land information systems, where those plans are ready.
“We are ready to allocate the necessary provisions in the year 2027 to digitize the relevant plans of 3.5 million land parcels,” Dissanayake said.
NewsFirst described this as one of the most significant digital land initiatives in the Budget, framing it against land ownership long “tangled in paperwork, delays and disputed records.”
Why titling matters economically
A registered, machine-readable title is what allows land to be used as loan collateral and transferred without a protracted search of paper deeds. The government’s stated case is that secure land rights and modern digital systems unlock economic activity and give landowners greater certainty.
The conditional wording is worth noting: the integration applies to parcels whose plans are ready, which leaves the number actually digitised in 2027 open.
A third source, and where the money sits
Updated 13 November. Hiru News independently reports both figures — Rs 800 million for Bimsaviya in 2027 and Rs 140 million for land records digitisation and modernising land information systems — and the 3.5 million hard-copy Survey Department parcels. All three newsrooms agree.
Hiru News adds placement rather than new figures: the land measures were announced in the same section of the Budget speech as the irrigation allocations, which total Rs 77 billion and are covered in this desk’s separate report. Against that, the Rs 940 million committed to land titling and records is a small fraction of what the Budget directs at land and water combined.
Not reported
Neither filing states how many parcels Bimsaviya has titled to date, how many of the 3.5 million plans are in a condition to be digitised, what the total project cost is beyond the 2027 provision, or a completion timeline.
