Covid-19 lockdown cost Maharashtra state Rs 16 crore per day in stamp duty
Earning stood at Rs 2,067 crore as compared to Rs 9,382 crore last year during the same period
The Inspector General of Registrations and Controller of Stamps Office has reported a significant drop in documents registration and earnings due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, thereof.
The Pune District Conveyancing Association claimed that due to the lockdown, the state was losing revenues estimated to be worth Rs 16 crore daily by way of stamp duty. Besides, it was losing Rs 2 crore which comes through registration, the organisation pointed out.
According to data released by the Inspector General of Registrations (IGR) the office recorded a registration of four lakh-plus (4,13,843) documents from April to August 2020, as compared to 12 lakh-plus (12,95,062) registrations during the same period in 2019.
Earning stood at Rs 2,067 crore as compared to Rs 9,382 crore last year during the same period.
The categories of documents registered are conveyance, agreements, gift, mortgage deeds and power of attorney documents. The official data shows that there has been a nearly 70 per cent dip in property registrations and revenue earnings for the IGR department during the last six months.
The top five articles registered comprised conveyance, leave and license (e-registration), mortgage, gift, power of attorney and other categories.
Suhas Merchant, president, Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai), Pune chapter, “The property market faced business losses in the last six months, but I see the demand rising from here on. Because of the stamp duty concession, smaller flats are in demand.”
“We see to it that developers complete the project on time. If there are complaints of buyers, we ensure that they are solved. The effects of restarting of the property market are likely to be seen from next month,” he said.
“With more new schemes we are confident that the property market will rebound. Money has slowly started flowing in the property market and there are a lot of inquiries for small-sized flats. It will take more than a month for things to settle down,” he said.
The Pune District Conveyancing Association (PDCA) in April had urged the IGR office to resume property registration after undertaking necessary precautions like wearing safety gear and maintaining the district collector specified safety guidelines.
Balasaheb Thorat, state revenue minister, had ordered the reopening of all the IGR offices in the state post-May 17 and ordered that proper social distancing norms and safety guidelines were followed.
Pune, Mumbai, Thane and Nagpur IGR offices witness a maximum number of property registrations and the IGR department is the maximum revenue generator for the state.
Meanwhile, the state government has also stayed the ready reckoner review rate for six months taking into account the deteriorating Covid-19 situation and rise of Covid patients in the state. The RR rates are published as part of state policy on March 31 every year.
Thorat has said that it would be practically not possible to review and assess the ready reckoner rates and the situation improves in the state of Maharashtra.