Section 2: Interpretation

2. Interpretation In this Act— “agricultural land”— (a) means land used as arable, meadow or pasture ground only (including pastoral land), land used for a plantation (including any stone heaps or in-field roads on the land), or as a wood or for the growth of saleable underwood, market gardens, nursery grounds, orchards or allotments; and (b) includes land in excess of 1,000 square metres used for the business of agriculture, horticulture, viticulture, apiculture or poultry farming, and land used for dairy farming, forestry or any other business consisting of the cultivation of soils, the gathering in of crops, the rearing of livestock or the propagation and harvesting of fish or other aquatic organisms; but (c) does not include— (i) land occupied together with a house as a park, gardens or a pleasure ground, land kept or preserved mainly or exclusively for the purposes of sports or recreation or land used as a racecourse; (ii) land with buildings, other than dwelling houses, being or forming part of a market garden and which are used solely in connection with agricultural operations thereon or used for the production of livestock or poultry; or L6A – 1 [Issue 2] LAVIMS (Project Implementation) Act (iii) agricultural land located in an area where development is permissible in accordance with an outline scheme or the strategic and detailed development policies of a development plan; “authorised person” means a member of the staff of the company, duly authorised in writing by the Permanent Secretary to carry out the duties of a valuer or surveyor; “boundary” means a line registered in the DCDB used to demarcate adjoining land parcels; “company” means the company which is under contract with the Ministry for the implementation of the LAVIMS project; “coordinate” means the Cartesian coordinate expressed in the prescribed Geodetic Datum and projection system for Mauritius which gives the precise location of land parcels boundary points; “DCDB” means the digital cadastral database referred to in section 4; “general valuation” means a valuation of property on which any tax, rate or due is to be levied or imposed under any enactment; “land category” means a kind of land which is classified according to its primary use and is registered in the DCDB; “land parcel” means a plot of land registered in the DCDB as an independent unit; “land registry” means the records kept under the Transcription and Mortgage Act; “LAVIMS” means the Land Administration, Valuation and Information Management System; “local authority” has the same meaning as in the Local Government Act; “market value” means the estimated amount for which a property should exchange on the date of valuation between a willing buyer and a willing seller in an arm’s length transaction after proper marketing wherein the parties had acted knowledgeably, prudently, and without any compulsion; “Minister” means the Minister to whom responsibility for the subject of lands is assigned; “owner”, in relation to any property, includes— (a) the person who is the legal owner of the property according to a registered and transcribed title deed; (b) in respect of any immovable property situate on State land or Pas Géométriques, the lessee of the site; [Issue 2] L6A – 2 (c) the person who receives or, if the property were to be let, would be entitled to receive the rent, whether for his own benefit or that of any person; or (d) where the owner cannot be found or ascertained, the occupier; “parcel identific o any property, includes— (a) the person who is the legal owner of the property according to a registered and transcribed title deed; (b) in respect of any immovable property situate on State land or Pas Géométriques, the lessee of the site; [Issue 2] L6A – 2 (c) the person who receives or, if the property were to be let, would be entitled to receive the rent, whether for his own benefit or that of any person; or (d) where the owner cannot be found or ascertained, the occupier; “parcel identification number” means a number which is given to a plot of land and is registered in the DCDB; “plot of land” means a delimited part of land or water; “property”— (a) means land, whether improved or unimproved; and (b) includes— (i) houses and buildings, fixtures and other building improvements of any kind, fences, tanks, wells, dams, fruit trees, bushes, shrubs and other plants planted or sown, whether for trade or other purposes, draining of land, ring barking and any other actual improvements; and (ii) reclamation of land by draining or filling, and any retaining walls or other structures or works ancillary to that reclamation, the excavation, grading or leveling of land, the removal of rocks, stone, sand or soil.