‘Proximity factor’ big worry for small owners

‘Government turning a blind eye to hardship of common man’

Proximity pays. It is common knowledge that the closer a property is to a major source of development, the higher is its value. The unsaid advantage enjoyed by the adjacent land now comes at a price, as the State government is mulling a new policy to fill the exchequer by taxing ‘proximity’. Having set the ball rolling on Market Value Revision 2021, the Department of Stamps and Registration is expected to blaze a trail in fixing the value. The process has remained the same from 2010 to 2020, but 2021 seems to be the game-changer in tapping the unexplored sources of revenue, as the Commissioner and Inspector-General M.V. Seshagiri Babu has initiated a new process. The properties having the potential to get value, but remaining under-valued on paper are the ones to be targetted. For example, the land abutting a highway certainly has a higher value. But the land in a survey number situated next to such ‘high value’ properties also enjoy an approximately better value, if not the same, which is not reflected on paper. As a result, the department is losing out revenue from the registration of such properties. It is this gap that the department seeks to plug.