The Hindu 08.12.2009
Property guidance values hiked
| Decision on Bangalore will be taken after March. |
Sharath S. Srivatsa
Bangalore, Dec 7
The recession–hit real estate sector may be taking its time to recover but the Government has been making an upward revision of guidance value of property across the State.
Beginning April 1 this year, it had effected the revision in nine districts and the Revenue Department is expected to complete the revision in at least 10 more districts by March 2010.
While the value of property have been revised in Shimoga, Hassan, Bidar, Haveri, Koppal, Davangere, Mysore, Gulbarga and Chitradurga districts, new values are to be given in Chickaballapur, Chikmagalur and Kolar districts in December following approval from the Central Valuation Committee. “The exercise to revise guidance value across Karnataka had been taken up since April this year, as it had been pending for the last three years. We do not foresee any drastic drop in property transactions due to this upward revision,” the Inspector-General of Registration and Commissioner of Stamps, Mr K.R. Niranjan, said.
Asked if the revision was to increase revenue collection as the Department had seen a shortfall of over 20 per cent, Mr Niranjan said: “Only 30 per cent of the total revenue collections in the State come from the districts; the rest from Bangalore urban and rural districts due to high value of property.
“The upward revision in districts would not make a big impact on revenue collections.”
Compensation
The revision ranges from as low as 5 per cent in Hassan and Honnali to a high of 401 per cent in Banavara in Hassan district. The value of property in some places such as Harapanahalli and Jagalur in Davangere district has not been touched.
According to a Revenue Department official, despite the recession, the upward revision has been effected after demand came from the public. In many places where public are expected to lose their property for development purposes and acquisition process for industrial development, such a revision would help them get a higher compensation, the official said.
In fact, the official pointed out that the Department did not receive any objection when the guidance value was revised, and the number of registrations has not come down in places where the revision has been implemented already.
Dubai crisis fallout
The decision on the revision of guidance value for property in and around Bangalore would be taken only after March 2010, and factors such as revenue collection performance and recession effect would be considered before taking such decision, said Mr. Niranjan. “If it [revision] takes place whether it would be an upward or a downward revision depends on many factors.”
The debt crisis in far off Dubai is expected to cast a shadow on the coastal belt in Karnataka, especially in respect to registration of property. “Most of the property investments in coastal Karnataka are by the expat population. With the crisis in Dubai expected to spill over to other west Asian countries, we expect a hit to our revenue collections,” a senior Revenue Department official said.
He added that places such as Mangalore, Udupi, Kundapura, Bhatkal and Karwar could be affected.
