Land price doubled

To be effective from May 1
The government, in its bid to increase non-tax revenue, has decided to double the official price of land, sources in the law ministry told New Age on Monday.
The decision, to be in effect from May, will reduce undisclosed money, sources added.
The flat registration fees will also be increased up to 4 times from the existing Tk 350 to Tk 650 per square feet, depending on the area.
Besides the local government department and directorate of registration, other government agencies including the law department, internal resources department and the National Board of Revenue, will also be responsible for implementing the decision.
An official of the Prime Minister’s Office said that Sheikh Hasina approved the decision in an inter-ministerial meeting last week.
Earlier, an inter-ministerial meeting presided over by finance minister AMA Muhith decided to double the price of land, instead of increasing it four times as proposed by the finance ministry.
‘The decision to increase the price of land was taken in line with the recommendation of the Land Price Re-valuation Committee headed by the additional secretary to the law ministry,’ said a senior official of that ministry.
He also said that land developers and buyers usually show lower prices of land on paper to avoid paying the full registration fee and to conceal their real income.
The government will form committees for every mauza to decide by how much the price of land will be enhanced in various areas.
In Dhanmondi residential area, the price of each katha of land has been increased to Tk 40 lakh, ten times the government price of only Tk 4 lakh fixed in 1993.
In Gulshan the official price of per katha of land, which was Tk 10 lakh in 1993, has now been raised to Tk 50 lakh by the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha.
Each katha of land in Motijheel and areas abutting Bangabandhu Avenue will cost Tk 60 lakh from May instead of the present sum of Tk 15 lakh.
The new price of one katha of land has been fixed at Tk 50 lakh for Banani and Baridhara, Tk 15 lakh for Uttara, and Tk 30 lakh for Mohammadpur and Mirpur.
The actual price of each katha of land in Gulshan and Banani,
however, is much more than Tk 1 crore and more than Tk 50 lakh in Lalmatia, according to developers.
The flat registration fees have been increased to Tk 1,500 per square feet in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet, while in other district towns it has been fixed at Tk 1,200 per square feet and in rural areas at Tk 1,000 per square feet.
‘The increase in official prices will have no effect on the private sector’s land price, but the common people will suffer as they will have to pay more taxes for registration,’ said the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh’s president, Tanvirul Haque Probal.
He said that the REHAB has always recommended reduction of registration fees of flats.
The price of land in the upazilas of all the districts — except Dhaka’s Dohar and Nawabganj, Gazipur’s Kaliganj and Kapashi — has been doubled. The price of land in Sylhet city will also be made double the price set in October 2006.
The land registration fees were reduced to 8 per cent from 16 per cent in urban areas and 6 per cent in rural areas with effect from last September.
The International Monetary Fund had earlier asked the government to raise the base price of land in the cities’ posh areas.

Courtesy of NewAgebd