The office of the registrar of assurances, Kolkata, and district registrar offices — where property sale agreements and deeds are registered along with legal documents like wills and testaments — will reopen on Monday after a month and a half since March 19.
Collection from registration and stamp duty is the fourth-highest revenue grosser for the state after SGST, excise collection from liquor and VAT on petroleum products.
Resumption of the RA office and the district sub-offices will not only supplement the government coffers during the Covid-19 crisis, but also enable home buyers to complete housing loan formalities after registration of sale agreements and even move into apartments after registering property sale deeds.
The state had set an annual revenue target of Rs 6,872 crore from registration and stamp duty in 2020-21. The RA office in Kolkata alone generates around Rs 1,100 crore a year. Though the government had introduced e-registration and offered monetary benefits up to Rs 20,000 on registration and stamp duty, response was lukewarm and the system was beset with glitches.
In the notification issued by the directorate of registration and stamp revenue, the RA office in Kolkata and all registrar offices have been asked to open from Monday with the staff assigned duty on rotational basis. Only offices in the confinement zones are exempt. Of the four additional registrar of assurances offices in Kolkata, two offices each will function on alternate days. While the offices will function from 10am to 5pm, the time for presentation of documents at the RA office has been set from 11am to 4pm.
Those seeking to register either property documents or wills and testaments will have to book e-appointments in advance. To ensure social distancing, only seven persons will be allowed into the office at a time. Also, the number of properties to be registered has been limited to 20 against the average of 200 registrations that happened at the RA office opposite Raj Bhavan in Dalhousie daily.
“The economy has to restart and the registration of documents is key to set the real estate sector in motion,” said an official.
Developers welcomed the move. “This will allay the uncertainties,” said Merlin Group chairman Sushil Mohta, who is also president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Assiociation of India (Credai).
Credai Bengal president Nandu Belani said it would help ease the revenue crunch that builders were facing. Because, “till sale agreements are registered, builders are not entitled to collect more than 10% of the project value,” he said.
