It is not just industrial and commercial establishments that are passing through a difficult period because of the lockdown. The state government’s revenue in the form of stamp duty and registration of properties too has been hit hard with government reportedly incurring losses to the tune of Rs 1,300 crore due to negligible real estate transactions.
Top government officials said the stamp duty and registration income for March 2019 was Rs 818 crore which it expected to rise to Rs 1,000 crore in March 2020. “As janta curfew was imposed on March 22 paving way for the lockdown, the state could clock a revenue of only Rs 501.09 crore, much below expectations,” the official said.
The number of property registrations in March 2020 stood at 78,584, much lesser than 1,20,821 registrations in March 2019. The lockdown came into force from March 24.
Revenues from stamp duty and property registration for April 2020 (until April 24) this year stood at zero even as the government had expected to earn Rs 800 crore. In April 2019, the state government earned a revenue of Rs 626.54 through property transactions.
Although the state government has allowed registration of property transactions from April 24, state revenue department officials are sceptical about any bounce back in earnings. This, even as there is a major reduction in the demand for real estate after the lockdown was enforced.
“The Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown have hit state government revenues in the form of stamp duty and property registration. In March-April this year, the government will end up with a revenue loss of between Rs 1,300 crore and Rs 1,500 crore. More worrying is the fact that real estate transactions will take a while to gather momentum even after the lockdown is lifted,” a top government official said.
Officials said that the state government may consider lowering stamp duty and registration fees on real estate transactions, as the real estate sector will take some time to recover from the lockdown. Earlier too, when a slowdown was experienced in the real estate sector, the state government had reduced stamp duty fees and registration fees to give the sector a boost.
