Land registration fees go up by Rs 15k

DEHRADUN: The state government’s order to increase the fee for land registration from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000 for plots costing Rs 5 lakh or more will significantly affect landowners in Dehradun, Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar, where the circle rates were revised a couple of days ago.
A source in the state government said that authorities revised the circle rates of land in these plains districts in view of much appreciation in prices of residential and commercial land.While the official said that the decision to revise the circle rates after a gap of two to three years was taken after making an assessment of the rate of appreciation on prices of land, buyers of plots say land prices had already gone up after the areawise revision of circle rates in these districts. Therefore, buyers pointed out, the hike in registration fees will only increase their hardship. Describing the hike as unjustified, buyers said that instead of hiking it at one go, the government could have done it in parts.
“Had the government increased the fee by Rs 5,000 instead of Rs 15,000, people could have afforded it. But a hike of this magnitude is unfair,” said Sushila Devi (56), who is planning to get her land registered.
Government officials, however, have a different take on this, stating that the hike was part of the government’s move to enhance revenue to cover up monthly revenue losses of Rs 280 crore to the state exchequer after the Centre stopped providing funds to Uttarakhand under the category of normal assistance for different projects and special assistance for certain projects recommended by the 14th Finance Commission. “Under the circumstances, we are left with no option but to increase revenue through different means,” said state finance secretary Amit Singh Negi.