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A fair deal: Land transactions will be ultimately governed by the fair value regime.

Often muddled in controversies, the notification had been nowhere in sight for a long time.

The Extraordinary Gazette made the headlines, as it leads to the conclusion of another phase of modernisation of land deals and ushering in of transparency.

Copies of the draft, running into hundreds of pages for each village, are available for reference at the designated offices.

Section 28A of the Kerala Stamp Act, 1959, read with Rule 4 of the Kerala Stamp (Fixation of Fair Value of Land) Rules, 1995, has necessitated the fixing of fair value.

A Revenue Department official said making suggestions on the fair values or submitting complaints, if any, about them, for which the government had allowed two months’ time, would be in the larger interest of society.

The complaints can be submitted at the sub-registrar’s offices.

The final fair price notification is expected in July.

The stamp duty in the State, considered one of the highest in the country, will then come down. Registering a property at below the notified price will become impossible.

The land in the State has been divided into 15 categories. The prices for each of them have been fixed based on various factors based on the data collected at the villages. The most obvious of these is access to basic infrastructure.

The classifications are as follows: commercially important plot; residential plot with National Highway or Public Works Department (PWD) road access; residential plot with Corporation, municipality or panchayat road access; residential plot with private road access; residential plot without vehicular access; garden land with road access; garden land without road access; coastal belt; water-logged land; rocky land; wasteland (land in close proximity to dumping yards, graveyards and so on); wetland; hill tracks with road access; hill tracks without road access; and government land.

As the Revenue and the Registration departments relied on grassroots-level collection of data, the draft fair prices reflect the market situation despite differences of opinion that such a massive exercise automatically generate.

The notification says the most priced pieces of real estate in the State are on Kochi’s Mahatma Gandhi Road and Marine Drive, now witness to the building industry’s equivalent of the gold rush.

The fair price of a commercially important plot on Mahatma Gandhi Road has been put at Rs. 70 lakh an are (2.471 cents make up an are).

In the same survey number (685), the fair price of a residential plot with Corporation road access has been put at Rs. 56 lakh an are and a residential plot with private road access at Rs. 28 lakh an are.

The price range is similar on Marine Drive (survey no. 843), where a commercially important plot has the price tag of Rs. 70 lakh an are. A plot with access to the National Highway or a PWD road has the price tag of Rs. 56 lakh an are. The notification considers the appreciating value of property in Kakkanad and Thrikkakara areas. A residential plot in Thrikkakara with access to a panchayat or municipal road has a price tag of Rs. 20 lakh an are. Similarly, the prices of residential plots in Kakkanad with access to panchayat or municipal roads vary between Rs. 16 lakh and Rs. 20 lakh an are.

In the city suburb of Thripunithura, now a residential haven, a housing plot at Thamarakulangara with PWD road access has been priced at Rs. 15 lakh an are, while a commercial plot will cost Rs. 25 lakh. The fair value of a residential plot here with municipal road access is fixed at Rs. 8 lakh an are.

In another purely residential area at Thevarakavu in the town, the price ranges from Rs. 8 lakh to Rs. 15 lakh an are for a plot with municipal road access. The Chakkamkulangara area, adjacent to the most valued land around Statue junction and Temple area, commands Rs. 25 lakh an are in commercially important space. The fair value for commercial space in the Statue and Temple areas is Rs. 30 lakh an are.

Moving a little away from the town centre, the Kannankulangara ward commands a rate of Rs. 18 lakh an are for plots with National Highway or PWD road access. The Railway Station ward zone has a rate of Rs. 20 lakh an are for plots with such access.

The price are just indicative since the draft notification does not often specify the geographical identity of the land, especially when it comes to the core city area. It specifies only the survey numbers of the land.

Fixing of the fair value is a significant step towards making the process of land transactions transparent, said a village officer here.

He said the fair price notification would bring about a more efficient monitoring of land transactions in the State and timely revision would ensure that the government got its due in stamp duty even when the rates were reduced.

Fixing of fair price of land is a welcome step, says a document writer in the city. It ensures a certain amount of objectivity in the deals and ensures that the government does not lose revenue. However, there is a major problem with people who will inherit ancestral property which has to be registered.

According to the prevailing rates, registering inherited property involves a stamp duty of five per cent and a registration fee of two per cent. The burden will be too heavy for a vast majority of people with limited income, he says.

Even if the stamp duties are to come down in the panchayat areas from 10 per cent to 4.5 per cent, in municipal limits from 12.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent and in Corporation areas from 13.5 per cent to 6.5 per cent, people will have to shell out a huge amount considering the high fair value rates, said another document writer.

An official in the registration office said that usually few people go about making complaints against official notifications such as the present one. They just take it as government policy. Only organised groups generally submit complaints.

But, for the builders, the fair price gave sanctity to the fixing of a higher price for flats, said a person who was at the registration office for a transaction.

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