One of the many public services in Bangladesh digitized by the government is e-mutation. It allows applicants to change the title of the ownership of land from the previous to the current owner using an online platform. Useful as it might be, digitizing land services has significant cost implications for the government. By assessing the investment cost, we have found that the potential social and economic benefits of e-mutation are undermined by the shortcomings it suffers from.
Researchers: Sumaiya Kabir Talukder
Timeline: 2018-2019
Status: Completed
Contact: Mehnaz Rabbani
mehnaz.rabbani@bracu.ac.bd
Context
The land administration system in Bangladesh is inscrutably complex. This complexity arrives from the practice of paper-based, manual record-keeping, which is often inaccurate; and the lack of coordination among different land administrative departments of different ministries. To make the process of land mutation simpler, minimize fraudulence and litigation, and acknowledge the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1.4 which aims to ensure equal rights of ownership and control over land, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has taken several reform initiatives. One of them is digitizing the mutation system by introducing e-mutation. In the e-mutation system, all necessary documents regarding land mutation are scanned and submitted online by applicants. Court fees are also paid through mobile financial services, such as bKash, UCash, Rocket, etc. Applicants are notified through SMS at each stage of the application and can track their application status on the official website using the tracking number. A proper evaluation of this system can assist in understanding its benefits received by citizens and its challenges in scaling up.
Objectives
Our objective was to assess the effectiveness and challenges of digitizing land services against the investment cost.
Methodology
To measure the benefits of e-mutation against the cost, we calculated the benefit-cost ratio (BCR) by using cost-benefit analysis (CBA). We also conducted a political economy analysis (PEA) to identify the challenges of scaling up e-mutation. Data were collected from official Access to Information (a2i) documents; a survey conducted by the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in 2015; and interviews with government officials from the Cabinet Division, a2i representatives, current and former Assistant Commissioner (AC) (Land) officers, journalists, and e-mutation service recipients.
Findings and Recommendations
The current e-mutation system in Bangladesh fails to address critical issues, such as discrepancies in survey records and conflicts regarding land inheritance. Offices that resolve such issues have not yet been digitized. Moreover, the coverage of e-mutation is limited. From both CBA and PEA, it was evident that although providing e-mutation service in every Upazila land office can generate high economic and social benefits, if the current state of e-mutation process and coverage prevails, the government will incur a huge loss. To receive the maximum benefit of e-mutation and achieve the SDG goal, all manual land and related services need to be completely digitized and integrated with the e-mutation system.
