In a move that will boost revenue to the exchequer, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to fix the highest guideline value for government lands sought for transfer, alienation, lease and assignment, among other things.
In a recent order, the government said that at present, there were no specific guidelines or instructions for the determination of the guideline market value of government lands. The current common practice was to select a similar type of private land within a 1.6-km radius of the government land sought for transaction and adopt its guideline value as that of the government land too.
Potential use
In a proposal sent to the government, the revenue authorities said there was an increase in the use of agricultural land for other purposes, and hence the guideline value of government land should be linked to the potential of use and not the type of soil.
It would be appropriate to fix the guideline value of a piece of government land by taking the guideline values of all private lands in the immediate vicinity and fixing the guideline value of the highest of those private lands. This would ensure uniformity in practice and remove subjectivity and any discretion, the proposal said. Wherever the government had ordered fixation of ‘zero’ value to certain lands such as tanks, waterways and catchment areas, the district registrar was authorised to make a site visit, assess the guideline value of the survey numbers in the same sub-division and fix the highest guideline value.
The government said in the order that the proposal of the revenue authorities envisaged the highest value among the adjoining lands as the guideline value.
The highest among all
Accordingly it ordered that the guideline value of any government land should be determined by identifying all parcels of land surrounding (immediately adjacent to) the government land, taking the guideline values of all private lands that surround the government land, and fixing the highest among the selected guiding values as the guideline value for the government land.
