THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The finances seem to have hit rock bottom but the state is still reluctant to collect lease rent arrears of entities whose land was resumed or lease terminated in the capital. The total loss: Rs 65 crore. Golf Club is the biggest defaulter with arrears amounting to Rs 63.70 crore. Under the Rules for Assignment of land Within Municipal and Corporation Areas (RALMCA), 1995, government land having lease rent arrears can be taken over by the state government. In such cases, revenue recovery procedures are to be initiated for collecting lease rent on land.
However, the district administration has found that lease rent amounting to Rs 65.15 crore was not collected though land has already been resumed. In the case of Golf Club, arrears amounting to Rs 63.7 crore were not realized. The senior official in the Collectorate argued that arrears were not realized as it was a case of licence and not lease. The Comptroller and Auditor General had debunked this argument a year ago.
“This stand is not acceptable since all cases of assignments, whether on lease or licence, in urban areas are governed by RALMCA, 1995, and hence arrears were recoverable through revenue recovery procedure,” the report of the CAG in 2014 said. The government suffered more losses as a result of its failure to revise fair value and the consequent short levy of lease rent. The lease rent that could be levied in urban areas varies from two to ten per cent per annum of the market value.
Hence the lease rent was fixed considering the market value prevailing in the locality of the land leased out. After the fair value was introduced, market value for the purposes of collecting rent was fixed as double the fair value. However, the fair value was not revised periodically. Finance Thomas Isaac said, though an attempt was made, it was cumbersome. Since fair values are stagnant, relying on fair value to fix market value would undercut the revenue of the state.
