Govt projects may be hit by likely hike in guidance value

Dept of Stamps and Registration has invited citizens' objections

Property rates, registration charges as well as land acquisition costs for various infrastructure projects in the City are likely to go up substantially as the State government has proposed to increase the guidance value.

The guidance value is likely to up by at least 10 per cent. The Department of Stamps and Registration has asked the citizens to file their objections to the draft of the new guideline values it has notified on September 14, 2015. People can send their objections or suggestions by post to the department or mail it to [e-mail] by September 29.

The department has not involved the Central Valuation Committee this time and relied on the number of properties sold in a particular area in the last 10 months - November 2014 to August 2015 - to arrive at the new guidance value.

The proposed hike in the guidance value, in turn, will affect many government projects ranging from road widening to the Metro Rail besides casting a cascading effect on the real estate sector.

The General Manager of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (Finance) U A Vasanth Rao said the hike in the guidance value will have a bearing on the Namma Metro project. “Logically the cost of the project will go up wherever there are land acquisition related issues. In such cases, the State government will have to support the BMRCL,” Rao told Deccan Herald.

An official in the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) too admitted that there could be an effect on the Authority's land acquisition processes for housing as well as infrastructure projects, including the Peripheral Ring Road.

The government used to revise the guidance values once in three or four years till 2001. However, from 2012 the guidance value is being revised annually to bring it up to around 70 per cent of the prevailing market value.

The main intention behind the government indicating the guidance value is to ensure that property buyers and sellers do not cheat on the government by paying lesser registration fees and taxes by undervaluing a property.