Uttarakhand to impose tax on land use change

The Uttarakhand government on Monday announced that it levy fee taxes on agricultural land falling beyond the development authorities’ domain and non-regularised zones for their usage of non-agricultural purpose and their related declaration.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the state Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna here. The state would earn Rs 70-90 crore a year from the development fees of land use change, said a top government official Though sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) already have authority for land use change, the government was not charging any fee so far.

In the transport sector , a decision was taken to increase the fee imposed on private vehicles costing upto Rs 10 lakh from existing 2.5 to four per cent. Vehicles costing above Rs 10 lakh will have to pay a five per cent fee.

This would bring an additional revenue of Rs 100 crore for the state government.

Rate of taxes vary for different types of vehicles under the Uttarakhand Motaryan Karadhan (Amendment) Ordinance, 2012. No tax had been imposed for the the last 14 years. The annual tax has been pegged at Rs 200.

For vehicles weighing upto 1,000 kg, it has been fixed at Rs 1,000; Rs 2000 for vehicles weighing between 1,000-5,000 kg, Rs 4,000 for vehicles weighing above 5,000 kg. and Rs 200 for the trailers pulled by motor. In the medical sector, it approved for the structure of separate directorate under Medical Education Department under which 48 posts have been created including that of one director, two additional directors, two joint directors, two deputy directors and one assistant engineer through outsourcing.

In the technical education, 18 self financed teaching and non-teaching posts for Uttarakhand Technical University had been created.

In the Cooperative, the tenure of Administrators and the Committee has been increased to 2 years from one and a half years and the tenure of Dairy Federations has been increased to 2 years from one and a half years.

The Ayush Department has been given authority to increase the tenure of Unani and Ayurvedic doctors to 3 years akin to Allopathic doctors.

BS