Guideline values of properties of agricultural lands have, on an average, gone up by 270 per cent.
In contrast, the values of properties in residential areas have seen an average 170 per cent rise.
The revised guideline values will come into force from April 1. Details regarding the new values will d be hosted on the website of the Registration Department shortly.
Analysing the revision, an official says that higher increase in the values of agricultural lands [compared to those of house sites] is due to greater real estate activity in areas on the outskirts of cities. For example, Tirumazhisai, about 30 km from Chennai, has farm lands. But, it is in such areas where the degree of real estate developments is higher compared to core parts of Chennai. This has a direct bearing on land value, resulting in greater increase in the values of properties in peri-urban areas. For a comparison, the real estate activity in localities of Chennai such as Anna Nagar and Purasawalkam has reached almost the level of saturation.
Secondly, the base of the present guideline values of the agricultural lands in peri-urban areas or fringes of cities is very low.
The previous revision in guideline values across the State was carried out in August 2007. Explaining the decision regarding the revision in guideline values, Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam stated that the State was losing huge revenue due to non-revision of guideline values even after substantial increase in the market value of properties.
To give relief to the public, the stamp duty on instruments of sale and other instruments would be brought down from the present rate of six per cent to five per cent with effect from April 1, he added. With a few more days to go for the conclusion of the current financial year, approximately 32 lakh documents have been registered, fetching around Rs. 6,200 crore. While the growth rate in terms of document registration was a mere five per cent, the rate in terms of revenue collected was 28 to 29 per cent.
The wide variation in the growth rate figures has been attributed to streamlining in the mechanism of registration such as insistence by the authorities on proper fixation of values for house sites/ layouts and the consequent reduction in the rate of documents referred to the district authorities under Section 47 of the Stamp Act. The implementation of the Samadhaan scheme and registration of more number of high value documents have also been cited as reasons.
K. Shanmugam, Principal Secretary (Finance), in his post-budget press briefing, stated that the receipts from stamp duty and registration were expected to grow at about 31 per cent in 2012-2013 due to the revision of guideline values. According to the budget document, expected revenue from collection of stamp duty and registration for the next year would be around Rs. 8,467 crore.
