After reported how leasehold property owners are facing discrimination by declining stamp duty concession to them, Maharashtra government issued a new notification on Monday extending the relief to such property holders too.
With the decision, flat buyers, builders, valuers and lawyers engaged in property paperwork of leasehold properties falling under Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT), nazul and corporations across the state would be benefited.
The stakeholders however, are complaining that the government is not providing the same benefit to those who have already purchased flats or plots on such leasehold lands.
“It’s not a new notification, but a corrigendum published by the government to correct its blunder. How can they discriminate between two properties? In the notification, it has now included properties under Article 36 of Schedule-I of the Bombay Stamp Act. Earlier, only properties under Article 25 of the Act, that are freehold, were offered concession,” chartered engineer and government valuer Milan Kale.
Officials at the joint district registrar (Class-1) office and collector of stamps at Civil Lines clarified that the new notification wouldn’t be implemented with retrospective effect and hence only new buyers or sellers would be benefited.
“All such decisions have prospective effect and not retrospective,” sub-registrar Ashok Ughade.
Kale, however, questioned the government’s intention saying why common man should suffer due to such discriminatory implementation of rules. “Since this is just an amendment in rules, the government must refund the excess charges levied on earlier transactions,” he said.
The government had issued two notifications on August 28 and 29, reducing stamp duty by 3% from 6% for a period from September 1 to December 31 to help revive demand for real estate sector, hammered because of Covid pandemic.Highlighted how the sub-registrar’s office was refusing to pass on the benefit to buyers of properties on leasehold lands citing no clarity in instructions. About 25% of leasehold properties in the city come under nazul, NIT and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).
Even the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India’s (CREDAI) branch had made a representation in this regard to the sub-registrar’s office. The office also received a slew of complaints from property buyers, lawyers and builders regarding the discrimination. Two cases have also been filed in the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court, which has issued notices to government and sub-registrar’s office, asking them to file a reply.
