No change in land value to avoid payout burden

Hyderabad: Even as the state witnessed realty boom, the government market value of the land in Telangana will remain the same this year also. The State Government has also dropped the proposal to hike registration fee and stamp duty.

The government hikes market value annually of lands, which is usually several times lower than the actual market value. The registration value is calculated on government market value and not on the actual market value also known as open market value which is not officially indexed.

The Registration and Stamps Department proposes hike in government market value to the government every year but this year, it has been turned down.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has turned down the proposal to encouraging realty sector further and also to reduce the burden of compensation payable to land owners when their land is acquired for public purpose.

The department has been asked to implement the existing registration fee structure and market value of the lands. The last time the government revised market values of land and registration fee was before the bifurcation of state in 2013.

The department officials said that revenue generated from land registration was quite impressive for the last three years. The state registered between 20 per cent to 23 per cent growth in revenues from collection of stamp duty and registration fee in 2015-16 and the same trend continued in 2016-17 and 2017-18 also.

“The department has forwarded a letter to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) seeking permission to increase land values as part of the official procedure. The CMO has asked the department to maintain status quo,” a senior official said.

The government was of the view that the increase in land value would not only affect the booming realty in the districts and but also in Hyderabad and places heavy burden on the government which has taken up the giant task of land acquisition for the proposed irrigation and industrial projects coming up on a large scale.

Official sources said that the government has to acquire nearly 50,000 acres of land for irrigation and industrial projects this year for which the government has to pay compensation to the displaced persons based on the market value of the lands. The government feared the compensation package would inflate if the land value increased even by 20 per cent.

The department has been achieving the revenue targets set by the government through land registrations. The main revenues sources - Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy - are also doing well in the realty business, the official said and expressed fear that if the land value increases property deals would come down in the state capital and affect revenues.