A government-appointed committee has proposed sweeping cuts to land registration charges and a shift to market-based property valuation, aiming to bring actual transaction prices into official records and recover billions in lost revenue.

The proposals include halving stamp duty, reducing registration fees and local government taxes, and introducing a uniform 1% advance income tax on property transfers.

The committee, led by former Land Secretary ASM Saleh Ahmed, recently submitted its recommendations to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Under the plan, registration fees would fall from 1% to 0.75%, while stamp duty would be halved from 1.5% to 0.75%.

Local government tax in urban areas would drop from 3% to 1.5%. The committee also proposed setting the rural rate at 2%.

The changes could ease the cost of buying land and apartments, although the actual savings would depend on the value declared in property deeds.

The committee argues that lower tax rates, combined with more accurate property valuations, could increase government revenue rather than reduce it.

The reforms could potentially raise revenue from property transactions by four to six times.

Bangladesh currently relies heavily on government-determined minimum mouza values for registering property transactions.

In many urban areas, these valuations are substantially below market prices.

As a result, buyers and sellers can register transactions at values far lower than the amounts actually exchanged.

The government loses tax revenue on the undeclared portion. The practice also allows large sums to remain outside formal financial records.

The problem can perpetuate itself.

Mouza valuations are partly determined using previously registered transaction prices. When earlier deeds understate values, subsequent official valuations can remain artificially low.

The committee wants to break that cycle by linking property valuations more closely to market prices.

It has recommended valuation committees at divisional, district and upazila levels to determine realistic mouza-based prices.

The proposed uniform 1% advance income tax is intended to simplify compliance and encourage buyers and sellers to declare actual transaction values.

The report also recommends a Certificate of Land Ownership (CLO), bringing essential property records under a single digital system.

Currently, verifying ownership can require checking registered deeds, khatians, mutation records, land development tax payments and mortgage information across multiple offices.

The proposed certificate would consolidate these records and allow online verification of ownership, land descriptions and ownership shares.

The committee also outlined short-, medium- and long-term reforms to improve land administration.

According to sources at the Prime Minister’s Office, a land management capacity-building project has been undertaken under South Korea’s Official Development Assistance programme and the International Contractors Association of Korea.

The initiative aims to use geographic information to develop a more consistent, market-based land valuation model.

The recommendations follow a September 16 meeting chaired by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, which reviewed efforts to align declared property transfer values with actual market prices.

The committee was subsequently tasked with reviewing existing laws, recommending amendments and outlining institutional and digital reforms.

--