RANCHI: Those hoping to invest in urban real estate can count on land rates remaining unchanged for another year. And when land rates do change, the hike won't be more than 20%.The state revenue registration and land reforms department notified new regulations governing land rates. "Earlier, land rates were revised annually in urban areas and every two years in rural areas. Under the new regulations, the bi-annual period of revision will be applied to the entire state," inspector general (registration) A Muthukumar said.He added, "Since the last revision of urban land rates was in 2017, the next revision will be in 2019. This year, only rural land rates, last changed in 2016, will be revised." The new rural land rates, following guidelines under new regulations, will be implemented from November 1.Initially, the department had planned on implementing the changes from August 1 but had to wait for cabinet approval, which took two months. "Even after notification, fixing the new valuation on the basis of the fresh format will take time. So another month will be needed to finally implement it," Muthukumar said.It is also the first time that an upper cap (20%) has been fixed for the rate of increase. "Till now, there was only a minimum rate of increase - 5% in rural areas and 10% in urban areas. There was no upper limit," Muthukumar said.In areas where there has been no increase in market value since the last government-determined revision, land rates will be increased by 10%. If the increase in market value of land has been less than 10%, that rate will prevail. Finally, places where the market value has gone up by more than 20%, there will be no revision of government rates.The new regulations also call for the formation of a committee in every district, headed by the deputy commissioner, to regulate arbitrary increase in land rates. "In some districts, unregulated pricing has led to land prices being higher than even areas in the state capital. The committee will oversee and regulate prices in such places," Muthukumar said.

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