mumbai the maharashtra cabinet has decided that the premium charged to convert collectors land given for housing purposes to freehold land will be 15 of the ready reckoner rate as against 50 proposed earlier for conversion of leasehold land given for residential use the premium will be 25 of the rr rate as against the 37 and 50 planned initially taking into consideration the lease period while toi had reported on wednesday that the cabinet had cleared the move for collectors land to be converted to freehold details on the premium to be charged were made public only on thursday a senior bureaucrat said the premium for converting land given for commercial and industrial purposes would be 50 the bureaucrat said that while the revenue department had in its proposal in november last year prepared rates across five categories these have now been brought down to three in an attempt to simplify the procedure mumbai has 3000 housing societies on collectors land with most of the foreshore land being given as leasehold of 1800 leasehold plots in mumbai 1300 are in the island city while the other 500 are in the suburbs the bureaucrat said the state where land is regulated under the maharashtra land revenue code has 22000 housing societies in all on collectors land slowdown in real estate may hit state govt coffersonce collectors land is made freehold it would be free from the state governments grip and its full development potential could be exploited it is however not mandatory to make collectors land freehold as the provision is an enabling one officials saidthe premiums will range from 15 to 50 it was expected that once collectors land becomes freehold the government may earn a huge premium but that prospect appears bleak now in view of the slowdown in the real estate sector the bureaucrat saidon november 17 2018 the revenue department had published the draft rules for conversion of collectors land according to these rules a 50 premium on rr value was proposed on what is officially termed as class ii land for residential use restricted use and transfer and for land leased for a period up to 99 years 37 on land leased for more than 99 years and currently held for the same lease period and 25 on land granted as class ii or as leasehold to a cooperative housing society further after expiry of three years from the date of publication of the gazette for land held as class ii the premium was to be 60 for all other categories premium was to be 75the department received 500 objections and suggestions to its proposal we carefully studied these and have simplified the draft rules now conversion to freehold land will be simple and premiums too be will be less the bureaucrat said