In a sign of gradual improvement in real estate, collection of revenue from the registration of land in major migration hubs outside the capital has jumped by 43 percent during the first month of the current fiscal year compared to the same period last fiscal year.

Five major migration centers-Jhapa, Sunsari, Kaski, Rupandehi and Chitwan, jointly collected Rs 104 million as land registration fee during the review month. The amount had stood at Rs 72.3 million in the first month of the last fiscal year.However, land registration revenue collected in the capital has slackened.

Data compiled by the Department of Land Reform and Management shows that revenue collected from land registration reached to Rs 13 million in Jhapa during the review month, up from Rs 5.6 million collected during the same month last year.

Similarly, land registration revenue increased from Rs 15.7 million to Rs 21.8 million in Sunsari, from Rs 23.3 million to Rs 28 million in Kaski, from Rs 16 million to Rs 22.1 million in Rupandehi, and from 11.7 million to Rs 19.1 million in Chitwan.

However, overall land revenue collection in the capital decreased marginally to Rs 227.2 million during the review month compared to Rs 231.6 million during the corresponding month last year.

Collection of registration fee at Dillibazaar Land Revenue Office has, however, increased to Rs 73.6 million during the review month from Rs 53.92 million during the same month last year.

The government collected Rs 45.29 million and Rs 36.24 million from the land revenue offices at Chabahil and Lalitpur respectively during the month. The amounts collected from Chabahil and Lalitpur last year were Rs 37.12 million and Rs 46.32 million respectively.

Revenue from Bhaktapur also increased to Rs 40.9 million from Rs 18.2 million.

However, revenue collection from Kalanki Land Revenue Office dropped significantly to Rs 31.13 million during the review month, from Rs 75.99 million reported during the same period last year.

“We have seen gradual improvement in revenue collection from the land revenue offices outside the valley but collection in the capital still is not impressive,” said Raju Basnet, a statistics officer at the Department of Land Reform and Management.

Though land transactions could not pick up during the fiscal year 2012/13, the government still managed to collect 18 percent higher revenue than the target set for the year.“Though we could not feel remarkable improvement in land transaction activities, revenue collection in the capital, the Tarai and hill districts have been better than our target,” said Basnet.

The government had collected land registration fee worth Rs 5.35 billion against the target of Rs 4.5 billion during the last fiscal year. The collection of registration fee hovered between Rs 400 million to Rs 500 million every month over the year, leading to overall 18 percent rise -- compared to the target.Land transactions improved marginally during the year after around four years of slackness since the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank, imposed a limit for banks for investment in realty sector.

The impact of the central bank´s new move reflected in the collection of revenue from land registration.Transactions of land and revenue from land registration have dropped by around 80 percent and 30 percent respectively following the stringent measures taken by the NRB to limit the exposure of banks to realty loan.

source: republica,31 August 2013