The property market in Karnataka is recovering faster than expected after the slump it witnessed over the past six months due to Covid-19. The collection of stamp and registration duty for August has been 80 per cent of the target for the current year, a clear indicaton of increase in transactions of properties.
The department of stamps and registration earned Rs 946 crore in August. Though it’s well below the target of Rs 1,164 crore, the collection has shown a slight increase over the corresponding month last year. In August 2019, the department had collected Rs 940 crore against the target of Rs 865 crore.
“Property registrations have been picking up steadily since July. We’re registering 30-40 documents (properties) every day since mid-August,” said KP Mohan Raj, inspector general of registrations and commissioner of stamps. “We’re doing better with each passing month (as far as registration is concerned) and we hope it will pick up pace in the coming months,” he added.
Revenue minister R Ashoka believes the real green shoots of recovery are yet to come and he’d rather wait for some more time to draw any conclusions. The revenue target of stamps and registration duty for the current fiscal is Rs 14,500 crore as per the budget proposal, and the government has collected Rs 2100 crore till August end.
Though the government reopened all sub-registrar offices in April-end after shutting them for a month owing to the lockdown, transactions of properties failed to pick up in May and June, resulting in revenue loss of Rs 2,000 crore. The government gets Rs 1,000 to Rs 1200 crore every month by way of stamp and registration duty.
Mohan Raj said revenue would have been even better had all 253 sub-registrar offices functioned on all days. “Three to four offices are closed on any given day due to Covid-19 which is putting the brakes on collection,’’ he said.
Property developers and realtors claim the sale of residential plots and flats is increasing slowly and hoping sales will pick up pace with the government opening all economic activities. “Enquiries have almost doubled . We hope it will get a further push during Dasara and Diwali,” said Dayanand, a realtor, who has developed two layouts near Nelamangala.
However, he said, it may at least six months more for sales to reach the transactions of pre-Covid-19 levels.
