The Assam Real Estate and Infrastructure Developers' Association (AREIDA) has asked the state government to impound the combined burden of all taxes on housing in the state within 10 per cent, which includes VAT, service tax, stamp duty, registration, labour cess and NOC fees.

Describing the burden of registration fee for apartments and vacant land in Assam as an excessive burden for the buyers, AREIDA president PK Sharma said Monday that the rate of registration fees needs to be rationalized to a maximum of Rs 500 per sale deed and the combined burden of taxes for sale deeds be kept within 5 per cent of the cost of the property.

"The stamp duty here in Guwahati is 8 per cent and the registration charge is 8.5 per cent, totaling 16.5 per cent, which is the highest in India. Besides, like other states, rates of stamp duty and registration fee should not be the same here in Assam as well", Sharma said, while addressing the media.

He added that it is unfair to increase the zonal circle rates or the government value of land in the city to eight to 12 times by the state government for city lands in the recent past.

"On many instances, we have seen that the new government value of a plot of land in Guwahati is much higher than the actual market value of that particular land," added Sharma.

Citing the example of interior areas in places like Gorchuk, Betkuchi and Lokhra in the city, the AREIDA president said the actual land value in these areas is around Rs 20 lakh to Rs 30 lakh per bigha and the circle rate was Rs 6.5 lakh per bigha. But the government has enhanced the value of land in these areas to Rs 75 lakh per bigha.

"For apartments, the value is being fixed by the office of the deputy commissioner for the purpose of calculation of stamp duty and registration fee. This value is found to be arbitrary, as well as exorbitant, and in many cases varying for different apartments of the same category even in the same building," alleged Sharma.

AREIDA was unhappy that the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) is charging an additional one per cent for NOC issued for sale permission, taking the total duty for sale deed in the city to 17.5 per cent.