After a gap of 18 years, the Tamil Nadu government has recently effected a multi-fold increase in the fees payable for certain services offered by the Revenue Department to the general public, including the surveying of lands and for copies of the village, taluk and district maps.
The State government’s decision followed the recommendation of the Director of Survey and Settlement, an officer told The Hindu. “The last time the fees were revised for these services were in 2002. The fees from these services are expected to boost the department’s revenue,” he said.
As per the revised structure, the fees for applying for surveying and pointing out the limits of boundaries of landowners in the joint holdings prior to subdivision/partition have been revised from the existing ₹30 for dry lands (punsei) and ₹50 for wet lands (nansei) to ₹1,000 and ₹2,000 respectively.
The fees for re-measurement of sub-division have been revised from the existing ₹60 for dry lands and ₹60 for wet lands to ₹2,000 and ₹4,000 respectively. Likewise, the surcharge levied on the cost of the survey marks has been revised from the existing 400% to 800%.
The government has also increased the fee for pointing out field boundaries (‘F’ line) from the existing ₹20 to ₹200. For pointing out the boundaries using theodolite, the fee has been increased from ₹30 to ₹300.
The fee for pointing out the limits of field boundaries (for one ‘F’ line) on appeal against the survey of maintenance field surveyor has been hiked from the existing ₹50 to ₹400.
As per the revision, the fee for obtaining a copy of the field measurement book extract would be ₹50 per page for A4 size sheets and ₹100 per page for A3 size sheets.
Cost of maps increased
A copy of the taluk map which was costing ₹357 so far would cost ₹1,000. In the case of taluk outline maps, it would cost ₹500 from the ₹51 earlier.
The cost of obtaining a copy of the district map has been increased to ₹500 from the existing ₹189 and in case of district maps (outline) from ₹51 to ₹300.
The cost of town block maps and village maps have also been hiked from ₹27 and ₹85 to ₹50 and ₹200.