Andhra Pradesh govt enhances value of land in urban areas, eyes Rs 800 cr additional annual revenue

The cash-starved Andhra Pradesh government on Monday enhanced the value of land in urban areas by 10 to 30 percent to net additional revenue of Rs 800 crore per annum but kept the registration rate unchanged at six percent.

Special Chief Secretary (Revenue, Stamps and Registrations) Rajat Bhargava told PTI that revision of land values has been effected to reflect the reality as there were a lot of anomalies in the current rates. We had to rationalise and equalise the value of land, based on nature and use in a vicinity. Only where there was a huge difference between the prevailing higher market value and its substantially lower registration value, we increased the land rate by 10 percent to 30 percent to achieve market value correction," he said.

This would also protect the avenues for revenue generation "in a balanced manner", Bhargava said.

He said the stamp duty and transfer duty structure on land and related transactions had not been increased from the existing six percent because of the prevailing economic environment, though many other states had enhanced the rates. "We have focused more on rationalisation and simplification of numerous land rate slabs by rectifying various anomalies," the official said.

Non-implementation of revised rate on land converted from agriculture to other uses, plotted layout having rate per acre, different rates on either sides of national highway, state highway for lands of comparable or similar land use are some of the anomalies "that we have now sought to correct, Bhargava added.

The Special Chief Secretary said a very scientific approach had been followed using GIS maps, cadastral maps and superimposing Google maps with the latest land use maps provided by the urban local bodies.

This was compared with the data available on the 'Meebhoomi' website of the state government. We now have better indexing of urban properties as per the prevalent land use like residential, house site or commercial.

We also prepared a list of converted land and land where layouts and colonies were approved by the Town and Country Planning Department, Bhargava said. This exercise would also ensure better land management in urban areas.