Hyderabad: The state government hopes to earn enough revenues with the lifting of GO 111 restrictions in 84 villages on the city outskirts, to offset the loan restrictions and cut in Central grants and pay for welfare schemes and development programmes in the election year.
The government is exploring various options such as regularisation of illegal structures that came up in GO 111 villages over the years, collecting land conversion charges from agriculture to other purposes for undertaking construction activities which will generate revenues for the state exchequer.
By lifting the GO 111 restrictions, the government has unlocked 1.32 lakh acres across 84 villages for real estate. Of this, nearly 32,000 acres belongs to the state government in the form of assigned land, bhoodan land, ceiling land etc, whose value is estimated to be nearly ₹2 lakh crore.
The government can allot these land parcels to industries and companies besides auctioning some portion of land to earn revenues for the state exchequer.
The land conversion charges are expected to fetch huge revenues for the state government. These are agricultural lands and to convert them into other purposes such as residential, commercial etc, the land owners need to pay ₹12 lakh per acre towards land conversion charges. If land owners apply for conversion for 50,000 acres, it would fetch the government ₹6,000 crore.
Official sources in the finance department said that the Centre had cut the state government's loan limit by ₹15,033 crore in the last fiscal (2022-23). Taking this into view, the state government reduced its loan limit by ₹15,000 crore on its own. This has led to fund crunch, making it difficult to find the cash to pay for the welfare schemes and development programmes.
