Realtors are happy, back move to hike land values in Telangana

HYDERABAD: People from the realty sector have welcomed the State government’s imminent move to hike land values and registration fees. However, they have made some suggestions for the same. CREDAI vice-president G Ram Reddy suggested to the government to decrease the stamp duty so that buyers would not feel the pinch and at the same time the government would also generate good revenues. Reddy also suggested that the upward revision should be carried out in phases and not in one go.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet sub-committee on resource mobilisation, which met here on Tuesday, noted that the registration fee was seven per cent each in Maharashtra and AP and 7.5 per cent in Tamil Nadu, while it is six per cent in the State. The stamp duty is four per cent, transfer duty is 1.5 per cent and the registration fee is 0.5 per cent for apartments/ flats, including underconstruction ones, in all areas. The sub-committee observed that transactions being carried out between individuals were of much higher value than the registration value of the properties fixed by the government.

For instance, if the government value of a property is Rs 20 lakh, the same property was being purchased for Rs 50 lakh. However, the buyers will pay the fee only on Rs 20 lakh. This trend was found to be very prevalent in the HMDA limits, where many people would pay 51 per cent higher value than the government value. This was giving scope for unaccounted money transactions.

“The increase in land values will curb the spread of black money,” a realtor opined. Besides, the values of agriculture lands too have increased due to irrigation facilities. The values of lands in HMDA limits increased due to developmental works. The measure is intended to reduce the gap between the government and market values. The estimated revenue from Stamps and Registrations in the 2021-22 Budget is Rs 12,500 crore. In the 2020-21 Budget, the government had estimated a revenue of Rs 10,000 crore. However, it ended up collecting only about Rs 6,000 crore.