CREDAI Bhopal Urges Government to Freeze Circle Rates and Stamp Duty for Next Three Years

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) Bhopal president Manoj Meek said on Thursday that rates should be based on use restrictions along green belts, rivers, streams, and water bodies. Where regulatory restrictions existed on construction and use, land utility was inherently reduced. Therefore, special concessions or categorization were recommended in such areas to ensure fair valuation based on the principle of ‘use’.

A CREDAI delegation consisting of Manoj Meek, Ajay Sharma, and Shivnav Pradhan called on Inspector General (IG) registrar on Thursday. They proposed adopting a range-based framework in the guidelines to ensure valuations reflected the property’s actual characteristics, land use, frontage, road width, location premium, amenities, specifications, and title quality, reducing unnecessary disputes and scrutiny.

Commercial complexes had floor-wise rates, but the primary business operations were located on the ground floor. The upper floors often housed offices and other services. Therefore, the guidelines should include additional reasonable floor-wise discounts, they said.

In addition to stamp duty, municipal body taxes, district taxes, and cess significantly increased the total registration cost. Therefore, rationalizing these additional burdens was essential, the CREDAI members said.

The lack of a master plan for 21 years and repeated increases in circle rates and stamp duty over decades had caused serious instability in the market. Therefore, with realistic reductions, there should be no increase for the next three years, they said.