Govt’s Rs 3K-cr LRS revenue dreams come crashing to `14 cr

Hyderabad: The state government, which was expecting to raise 3,000 crore from the Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS), ended up by managing to generate a meagre Rs 14 crore from it. Despite the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) department sending letters to 11.62 lakh applicants (from among 15.54 lakh applications) to submit their details, only a fraction over two lakh (2.08 lakh) submitted their data, paid the required LRS fees and got their layouts approved.

The scheme launched in 2020 allows owners to regularise plots in layouts without proper permissions. It was aimed at processing the heavy backlog of applications, while also earning revenue.

According to official sources, about 15.54 lakh applications were received from 149 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), including the 27 that were subsequently merged into the GHMC. Sources said that the government was expecting a Rs 3,000-crore windfall from the layout regularisation scheme fee, whose first deadline was March 31, 2025. Incidentally, the last date was extended on several occasions, on a monthly basis-April 30, May 31 and the third till June 30. It was magnanimously declared as the ‘final opportunity to pay the fees with rebate’. Despite such efforts, the much-publicised scheme received lukewarm response.

When asked about the reasons for lack of interest, a senior official from the department said that there could be many reasons, including the hope among people that the rates would be further decreased or extension of the facility afresh; some of the layouts were perhaps among prohibited lands like buffer zones, FTL, while some may not have possessed the required documents. Generally, the applicants will have to get a NOC from the revenue and irrigation departments and later pay the market value prescribed by the registration department.

Clueless on how to proceed further, officials pointed out that they were yet to receive any instructions from the government. They said that the government will take a call on whether it wants to extend the deadline or re-issue letters. Meanwhile, those, who failed to regularise their plots, will be denied building permissions, will be ineligible for bank loans and it will be difficult for them to register or sell their property, said officials.