Guidance value of land in city increased

Guidance value of land in city increased

The Hindu

Move to help Revenue Department net more income


BANGALORE: The State Government has announced a 40 per cent to 60 per cent increase in the "guidance value" of land in and around Bangalore, effective Friday.

The registration fee for property transactions goes by the guidance value and this means those registering property will have to pay more now. The stamp duty and registration fee is calculated according to the guidance value.

The usual registration charges are 10 per cent of the guidance value for the specific area, as fixed by the government. The Revenue Department expects to earn an additional income of Rs. 500 crores to Rs. 600 crores annually from the revised values.

Pending this decision and the status of new layouts not approved by the Bangalore Development Authority, there was lull in property registrations for close to two months, according to the Sub-Registrar's offices.

In areas coming under the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike limits, the guidance value has gone up by an average of 40 per cent to 50 per cent. In peripheral and suburban areas such as Kengeri, Peenya, Electronics City, Whitefield, Kanakapura Road, Kadugondanahalli and Krishnarajapuram, the guidance value may be almost double the existing rates. Though some of these areas have their own city municipal councils (CMCs), for all practical purposes, they have become suburbs of Bangalore with relative high property prices.

The guidance value revision was taken up by the Central Valuation Committee headed by the State Inspector-General of Stamps and Registration. Unlike earlier revisions, the Valuation Committee did not go by existing slabs but went into actual market prices as a base, officials said. The earlier base values had little relationship to prevailing market prices, they said.

Draft guidance values were published by the Committee in May end this year and objections were called for. More than a hundred objections from property developers, citizens' groups and individuals were received up to August 10, the last date notified, officials said. The objections were considered but the fact that property prices had gone up and were reflected in transactions had to be acknowledged, they added.

The Committee went into various parameters. The real estate boom related to the information technology and biotechnology sectors, high rise developments, growth of new suburbs, the international airport and its impact on prices in areas around it and media advertisements by real estate developers were taken into consideration.