Khalikov on land prices: I do not believe there is no understandable solution

       Land undervaluation may lead to 30 municipal budgets losing 900 million roubles.

       (Kazan, January 31, Tatar-inform, Ayaz Ismagilov). Over 1,000 appeals regarding land cadastral valuation have been submitted to Tatarstan Arbitrage Court; almost half of them were received in 2013. Undervaluation may lead to 30 municipal budgets losing a total of 900 million rubles due to smaller tax and non-tax income.

       Tatarstan Land and Property Relations Minister Azat Khamaev reported these numbers at the authority’s end-of-year board. Tatarstan Prime Minister Ildar Khalikov also attended the meeting.

       Khamaev named the issue of deliberate under-reporting the land cadastral valuation by the dishonest market players as one of the major problems.

       According to the official, the ministry diligently inspects the court claims and reports on land market value. The minister stated that many of those documents contain legislation breaches. The analysis of land deals uncovers instances when the land value is much higher in the deals than in the court claims. Appraisers and legal experts are involved in the illegal activities.

       Azat Khamaev stated that this information is forwarded to law enforcement authorities to charge the claimant with fraud or tax evasion. The minister also pointed out the imperfection in valuation methodology and low professional qualification of the appraisers.

       “We have not solved this crucial issue yet,” Ildar Khalikov commented. “I do not believe there is no simple and understandable solution. Let us look, think, initiate federal legislation changes if it comes to that. But we cannot accept the dishonest market players deliberately undervaluing the land, and, therefore, the taxes,” he said.