Huge loss due to non-revision of jantri rates: CAG

Non-revision of Annual Statement of Rates (ASR) or jantri rates since the last five years, in contravention to government resolution to do so every year, has led to a huge revenue loss to the government, CAG pointed out in its report.

The state government had announced jantri or ready-reckoner rates for land for ascertaining stamp duty and other levies in 2011. The rates are required to be revised every year, but have not been changed during April 2012 and March 2017. CAG said since 2011, significant development activities have taken place in various parts of the state including BRTS in Ahmedabad, Surat and Rajkot, and metro rail project in Ahmedabad, among others, which have a direct impact on the upward movement of market value of immovable properties.

“However, due to non-revision of ASR, the government had foregone an opportunity for revenue realization which is based on current market value of immovable properties,” it said. CAG pointed out that there were 30.62 lakh sale deeds registered from 2012 to 2016, and an analysis of of comparable data of 25.46 lakh sale deeds showed that the transaction value in 13.69 lakh sale deeds was higher than the market value as per ASR.

“In 7.28 lakh documents, the difference in sale deed price and price as per ASR was more than 10%. In 2.33 lakh documents, the difference was between one to five times, and in 45,218 documents, the difference was five to 10 times,” it pointed out. The auditor also cited several instances where the government had lost revenue worth crores by way of lower stamp duty and land premium due to unrealistic jantri rates. CAG also found discrepancies in the survey process for ascertaining market value of properties as per ASR.

In a test check of nine districts, the CAG audit found that in 70 value zones out of 11,869 zones, rate of open plot land was significantly lower than composite rate of flats, i.e. a bungalow would cost less than a flat.