The cash-starved Karnataka government that is looking for ways to mobilise additional resources to keep afloat. One of the plans, the government has is to allow Sub Registrar offices to function so that property transactions can go on.
Taxes from sale and purchase of properties is the third highest revenue generator in the State after the GST (Commercial Taxes) and Excise (Liquor).
Revenue Minister R Ashoka said that he will convene a meeting of senior department officials to discuss ways and means to open the sub registrar offices and how to ensure that people reach offices without much trouble.
“We will probably inform the local police stations to allow people coming for property registration to move. We are also thinking of regulating the timing for property registration by asking people to come at a specified time to avoid crowding at sub registrar offices,” Ashoka said.
A final decision, however, will be taken after a meeting with the officials on Thursday.
Regularisation of property
Other that this, the state government will also regularise Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) properties that have been encroached upon as a one-time settlement under Akrama Sakrama scheme.
Through this, the government hopes to mobilise Rs 30,000 crore. This is in addition to the 12,000 corner plots in BDA, which the government has decided to auction and raise Rs 15,000 crore from, besides selling all corner sites in all urban development authorities in Karnataka.
A Cabinet sub-committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan met on Tuesday and decided to allow one-time regularisation of BDA properties.
The committee, however, is yet to fix the regularisation fee. “It will be done shortly,’’ a source said. It is said that the regularisation fee could be around 50 per cent of the guidance value of the property fixed by the Stamps and Registration department.
5,000 acres, 75,000 properties
At least 5,000 acres of BDA land is encroached upon in and around Bengaluru, of which at least 75,000 properties have come up.
These are the lands that the BDA had acquired and paid compensation to original land owners. The owners, however, after accepting the compensation had sold their lands to private individuals and companies.
Earlier, the government was considering regularisation of buildings constructed on small plots but is said to have decided to regularise properties measuring up to 120×100 square feet also.
The Committee is also said to be in favour of regularising empty plots.
