Telangana Government to notify land prices in gazette

Hyderabad: In yet another big step towards bringing more transparency in the land registrations under the new Revenue Act, the government has decided to notify the prices of all agriculture and non-agricultural lands in the state gazette.

The government's latest move will help in mobilizing more revenues and strip off the discretionary powers hitherto enjoyed by the Sub Registrars during the registration of lands.

People will also have the access to the information regarding the registration rates of every inch of land on Dharani website which is to be put in public domain soon.

With this new initiative, the Sub Registrars will lose their power to finalise the land prices during the registration. The MROs, who were entrusted with the responsibility of registration of agriculture lands under the new Revenue Act, will also have to strictly consider the land prices announced by the government.

In the current system, the Sub Registrars have been given freedom to finalise the land cost at the time of registration. It came to the notice of the government that the authorities exploited their powers and indulged in corrupt practices.

The officials reduced the land prices in collusion with the buyer and sellers to reduce stamp fee and registration charges at the time of registration. As a result, the government has been losing a portion of revenue from the land registrations.

In some cases, the Sub Registrars increased the land prices abnormally if the buyer did not pay bribe to the officials. "All such malpractices will come to an end once the government issues a gazette on the land prices," a senior official said.

Since the land prices are shooting up in Telangana after the completion of Kaleshwaram and other pending projects, the officials said the finalisation of the land prices for the registration by the government will pave way to modify the land cost from time to time depending on the increasing land prices in the open market.

For instance, the government will increase the prices of agriculture land for registration if the land prices go up in a particular area. The mushrooming realty ventures in the Greater Hyderabad and district headquarters also helped jack up the property costs in the recent times.

Considering the realty growth as a big advantage, the government will also increase the market value of the lands to generate more revenues through hiked registration fee and stamp duty by altering the land costs, a senior official said, adding that the system is likely to come into force once the registration process resumed. In view of the administrative reforms brought into force in the Revenue department, the government has stopped registration of lands and properties indefinitely.