The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Registration charges to go up in State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 18, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Registration charges to go up in State

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, AUG.17. Registration charges will be increased by up to 10 per cent from September 1, following a revision of market values of properties, lands and structures in the State.

The hike is in line with the guidelines that seek upward revision every year in case of towns/cities and once in two years for the rural areas and the decision to increase the registration income to Rs. 1,800 crores, up from last year's Rs. 1,545 crores.

The Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, is stated to have cleared the revision proposal of the Stamps & Registration Department on Saturday when he reviewed the performance of the income-generating departments.

Informed sources said the green signal was also given to the Transport Department for increasing the life-time tax on vehicles, but its implementation may be deferred to April in view of the possible adverse fall-out. Dr. Rajasekhar Reddy said a blunt `no' to hike in excise revenue. Similarly, the Commercial Taxes Department would not resort to any hike, but seek to augment revenues from Rs. 9,400 crores to Rs. 10,000 crores by broadbasing the tax-net and plugging leakages.

Hike overdue

The Government has asked the existing Market Value Committees headed by RDOs for the rural areas and Joint Collectors for corporations/municipalities to immediately indicate the long overdue increases in the market value for being incorporated in the registration charges from September 1. In view of the `unsteadiness' in the values in the corporation areas, especially Hyderabad and Vijayawada, due to the Telangana factor and the speculation about imminent increase in interest rates on housing loans, the department wanted to keep the hike pending for these areas "till the dust settles down", but the Government vetoed it to avoid heartburn among the rural people.

Even with registration fee and stamp duty remaining unchanged at 0.5 per cent and 13 per cent ( in case of corporations), the owners will have to pay higher amounts for registration transaction because these rates are on the appreciated values of the properties.

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Andhra Pradesh