The state government of Telangana is currently deliberating on a decision to increase property registration charges by as much as 50% for both agricultural & non-agricultural properties. If the cabinet of ministers approves the hike in property registration charges, the new rates will come into effect from the next month i.e., 1st February 2022. The govt. of Telangana had increased the cost of registration for a property in July 2021 and it has only been 6 months before the last hike but the state govt. intends to increase registration charges to gain revenue from property registration fees.
The registration & stamps department of Telangana is one of the largest sources of revenue for the state govt. and the govt. expected a revenue of more than ₹10,000 crores for 2022, the increase in property registration charges would mean the state govt. can expect a further ₹4,000 crores in revenue from property registration. The Chief Minister of Telangana has reportedly instructed the state’s registration & stamps dept. to increase registration charges in light of the increase in number of property registrations over the last few months due to a large real-estate boom in Hyderabad & other Tier-2 cities in Telangana,
According to an official from the Revenue & Stamps dept., the state govt. can revise values in urban regions for non-agriculture properties twice a year & once a year for agricultural properties. Preliminary meetings are being held by the govt. regarding the proposals to increase registration charges & to finalise the margin of the hike, these decisions are expected to be made during the last week of January and come into effect 1st February 2022 onwards. Registration charges & stamp duty rates have already been increased from 6% to 7.5%. There has been a significantly rapid appreciation of land value in Telangana post the formation of the state in 2014.
Irrigation projects taken up by the govt. of Telangana has also made property rates climb, the completion of Kaleswaram project & the Konda Pochamma Sagar reservoir in Siddipet has led to land value shooting up by about ₹50 – 80-lakhs for an acre of land. The value of increase in land value as per the registrations department was quoted to be around 5%. An earlier revision of rates by the Revenue & Stamps dept. had fixed the minimum value of agricultural land was set to ₹75,000 per acre and minimum value for flats was fixed to ₹1,000 per sq. ft. The minimum rate for open plots was finalised as ₹200 per sq. yd. and all these revised rates are in effect from 22nd July 2021.
The Telangana govt. wants to capitalise on the current real-estate boom in the state to increase the revenue generated from property registration and have more funds in hand for the govt. to utilise on new projects.
