Though no date has been fixed for implementation of the proposed revision of guidance value, senior officials promise a ‘realistic and practical rise’ whenever it is effected.
According to sources in the Revenue Department, apart from pressure from the real estate sector, the Finance Department has also sought some clarity on a few issues pertaining to the proposed guidance value.
For the past three years, the revision exercise by the Central Valuation Committee has been an annual affair, which the real estate industry has been crying hoarse about. The industry experts have pointed out that the mid-year annual revision should be avoided and must be effected at the start of the new fiscal.
Meanwhile, despite a two per cent drop in the number of registrations, the Stamps and Registration Department has still managed to achieve a growth of 19.7 per cent in revenue collection over the corresponding period last year.
So far, the department has reported a revenue collection of Rs. 5,028.97 crore, over 60 per cent of this year’s target of Rs. 8,200 crore. Last year, during the corresponding period, the department had achieved 56.34 per cent of the target of Rs. 7,450 crore.
Experts attributed this to the hike in the guidance value effected last year. In Bengaluru, the guidance value was revised upwards by 30 per cent. A senior official said that the department is hopeful of meeting the target.
Seeking a hike
At a time when builders and developers are opposing the proposed hike in guidance value in Bengaluru Urban district, a few citizens from Ramanagaram district have sought further increase in the proposed guidance value.
The office of the Inspector General of Registrations and Commissioner of Stamps has received two applications seeking a hike after the draft notification on new guidance value was issued. Sources in IGR’s office attributed this to plans to shift Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences to Archakarahalli, for which land will have to be acquired. Meanwhile, citizens living outside the Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Development Authority have demanded status quo citing drought.
Builders against revision
The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI), Bengaluru, has been vociferously objecting to the revision of guidance values. “Over the past two years, the overall market has been sluggish. We are opposed to mid-year revision in guidance value and have demanded that it be fixed scientifically,” said Suresh Hari of CREDAI, Bengaluru.
He also said that with interest rates not reducing, buyers have become very choosy and are taking time to make buying decisions. “The revision of rates was announced during the festival time, a period which sees a lot of real estate business. But this year, it was not so.”
He added that the government must delink stamp duty from guidance value, as it creates artificial inflation of market prices. The real estate developers have for long been demanding that the guidance value be indicative of the market conditions.
Draft notification
Issued on September 14
Total objections: 169
Objections from Bengaluru Urban district: 157
Previous hike in guidance value implemented in November-December 2014
