CHENNAI: The state’s registration department has ordered a sweeping review of the market value guidelines used to assess stamp duty on property transactions across Tamil Nadu, after a high-level committee identified eight categories of inconsistency in how streets, agricultural land and peri-urban plots are valued.
The move hints at possible concerns for property owners, buyers and developers with guideline value hikes at many places and a possible drop at a few places. However timeline of implementing the revised guidelines is yet to be announced.
Inspector General of Registration GK Arun Sundar Thayalan, in a July 18 letter to all district collectors, directed valuation sub-committees to rectify anomalies identified during a July 15 meeting of the State Valuation Committee.
Sub-committees have been told to reclassify streets using electricity-connection data obtained from the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA), cross-referenced with property tax records. Streets with 60% or more commercial power connections are to be designated commercial; those between 25 and 60%, mixed use; and those below 25%, residential.
The directive also targets pricing inconsistencies on connecting roads. Where short stretches branch off a main road but carry a different valuation despite comparable width and usage, or where cross-roads link two similarly-used main roads at differing rates, sub-committees must adopt a uniform value.
A similar fix applies to national highway corridors spanning multiple sub-registration jurisdictions. The order cites the East Coast Road and Poonamallee highway, where adjoining villages are currently valued at variable price ranges of Rs 2,000, Rs 1,800 and Rs 500 per sq.ft. despite comparable frontage, as an anomaly requiring correction.
The committee said guideline values in villages adjoining fast-growing areas have lagged behind market realities, and directed sub-committees to benchmark such villages against adjacent high-value localities.
The department has ordered valuation reviews across 1,020 villages and town panchayats classified as peri-urban – those adjoining municipalities and corporations undergoing rapid urbanisation.A related instruction mandates a minimum guideline value for agricultural land within municipal and corporation limits, aligning it with nearby residential plots instead of the nominal agricultural rates currently applied.
Extra slots for registrations on Aadiperukku
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s registration department will more than double advance-booking capacity for property registrations on Aadiperukku, which falls on August 3, anticipating a surge in document registrations on the auspicious day.
The department has increased the number of advance-booking tokens at sub-registrar offices from 100 to 150. Offices with two sub-registrars will issue 300 tokens, up from 200.
In addition, 100 high-volume sub-registrar offices will raise ordinary token allotments from 100 to 150 and increase tatkal slots to 16 from 12 by adding four extra same-day tokens, according to an official release.