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A hike in the green tax and land tax has been envisaged in the Finance Bill passed by the Legislative Assembly on Friday.
Land tax in Kerala is calculated by considering land in units of 'are'. Generally, people in the state measure land in 'cents' and one 'are' constitutes 2.47 'cents'.
All the new projects would be funded by KIIFB, which is outside the purview of the state Legislature. This, in fact, exposes the incompetence of the state government in implementing developmental projects.
The State Domestic Product went down by -9.2 percent during the financial year 2020-21, states the Economic Review tabled in the Kerala Legislative Assembly on Friday prior to the presentation of the State Budget.
The decision to revise the fair value of land is likely to cause a corresponding rise in the land price in the high-density State where property prices come at a premium.
The green tax on second-hand vehicles will be increased by 50% while the tax for motorcycles that cost up to Rs 2 lakh will go up by 1%.
Not a single rupee spent by KIIFB has gone into Balagopal's deficit calculations though the CAG had wanted it.
This time Balagopal is more realistic. He has estimated only a 25% increase in the state's own tax revenue during 2022-23 fiscal. It has been more than a decade since tax growth touched 25% in Kerala.
Kerala Finance Minister Balagopal has proposed a new slab for land tax and a one-time increase of land fair price by 10 per cent in this budget. The minister also set aside Rs 2,000 crore to cushion the impact of price rise.
Balagopal wants a share of the enhanced value certain properties enjoy as a result of their proximity to big infrastructure projects.