The state government today introduced the Andhra Pradesh Agricultural land (Conversion for non-agricultural purposes) (amendment) Bill, 2012 in the state Assembly for reducing conversion conversion charges from 10 to 5 per cent in Greater Municipal areas. On the advice of Speaker Nadendla Manohar, Revenue Minister Dr N Raghuveera Reddy moved the bill in the House.
With this, the overall conversion charges would be reduced to nine per cent instead of the existing 10 per cent in the state and in the three Municipal areas of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC), the conversion charges would be reduced to five per cent, the Minister said. Aquaculture activities should be treated on par with agriculture and no conversion charges should be levied on lands where aquaculture is under taken, the Minister said. With the amendment, the government would loss of about Rs 11 crore per annum, the Minister said and added the land used for aquaculture activities is proposed to be exempted from conversion fee with retrospective effect from January 2,2006 and the term fee will be substituted with the term ‘ tax’.
Non-agiruclture Lands Assessment (NALA) Tax was not collected from Aquaculture before the 2006 Act. At the time of enactment of the APAL Act 2006, aquaculture could not be shown as a part of agriculture. As per the report of the Commissioner of Fisheries, the approximate conversion charges for the years 2007 and 2009 would be about Rs 468.83 crore (which has not been collected), the Minister informed. However, the bill after its is passed by both Houses of the legislature of the state may be submitted to the Governor for his assent. UNI