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Pay a fee to get your land khata

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Deccan Chronicle       30.12.2010

Pay a fee to get your land khata

December 30th, 2010

Dec. 29: In a major relief to over five lakh site owners in the city, the BBMP council on Wednesday approved the recommendations for the amendment of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act.

This enables the site owners to obtain ‘khata’ by paying an ‘improvement’ fee and conversion fee to the BBMP. Amidst acrimonious scenes, the ruling BJP also approved the collection of ‘improvement’ or development fee from the revenue site owners. The opposition Congress and JD(S) objected to this and demanded that the BJP bring down the ‘improvement’ fee, saying it was exorbitant.

According to the chairman of the BBMP committee on Taxation and Finance P. N. Sadashiva, if the recommendations are approved, instead of waiting for the Sakrama scheme, the property owners could get ‘khata’ for those properties which have been converted for non-agricultural purposes from the competent authority -- deputy commissioner (urban).

The permanent ‘khata’ will help property owners obtain the building plan from the BBMP. It will also enable them to avail of loans from financial institutions for building houses.

The issue of ‘khata’ had been stopped for those layouts which were formed without land conversion and approval from the competent planning authorities, like BDA, Bengaluru Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) and Bengaluru International Airport Area Planning Authority (BIAAPA).

If the amendment comes through, the BBMP could earn revenue to the tune of at least Rs 500 crore. The amendment will help the BBMP to collect both conversion fee and ‘betterment’ fee. However, the BBMP is expected to remit the conversion fee to the government through the deputy commission (urban), which is the competent authority for land conversion.

The ‘betterment’ fee would be collected from all the property owners for providing them with civic amenities like roads, drains and sanitary connections. But all this does not necessarily mean that their property is regularised, clarified Mr Sadashiva.

Those who pay the improvement fee, will be given ‘B khata,’ which helps the BBMP to collect property tax, he said.