In a massive relief for those transferring property to family members, the state government has decided to do away with stamp registration duty of 7% on such transactions. The registry will now be done for Rs 5,000 with an additional processing fee of Rs 1,000.
The proposal, cleared by the state cabinet, specifies that if property is being transferred to father, mother, spouse, son, daughter, daughter in-law, son in-law, real brother, real sister and children of one’s son or daughter, then a stamp registration duty of only Rs 6,000 has to be paid against 7% of the cost of the property.
Minister for stamps and registration Ravindra Jaiswal said that the earlier stamp duty was creating unnecessary tension within families as the high court of registration was now allowing them to settle property issues while the owner was alive.
“Earlier, as the owner of a property, if I wanted to transfer it to my child or another close relative, I could only either transfer it or sell it. In case of transfer before my death, even as there was no exchange of money and the same people continued to reside in the house, a high rate of stamp duty was being charged which prohibited people from dividing property or settling ownership before one’s death. This new rule resolves that issue,” the minister told .
A senior government official said that till now, due to the high cost of registration, families often used power of attorney to transfer properties which was leading to a huge financial loss for the government.
For instance, he explained, for transferring a property worth Rs 50 lakh, stamp registration would cost about Rs 4.20 lakh. The power of attorney, on the other hand, costs only about Rs 100. To avoid the cost of registry, families were resorting to cheaper power of attorney. Now, when registration is available at such a low cost, people would prefer to settle property issues properly rather than rely on power of attorney. This move would actually bring in revenue for the government, he said.
