District admin initiates inquiry into stamp duty evasion

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad district magistrate (DM) has directed all sub-registrars to make inquiries in areas where there is rapid development taking place and the

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad district magistrate (DM) has directed all sub-registrars to make inquiries in areas where there is rapid development taking place and the number of property registrations is high. The directions were issued Friday to check instances of registries being executed after showing residential land as agricultural land to evade stamp duty.

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The directions came after two such instances come to fore in areas near Raj Nagar Extension. In both cases, sale deeds were executed by showing land as agricultural while it was already being used for residential purposes. The officials said agricultural land attract lesser stamp duty and, hence, people often resort to this are trying to evade stamp duty by making such registries.

The officials of the stamps & registration department said there is a major difference in stamp duty if the land is shown as agricultural instead of residential.

“The circle rates of residential land is some eight to 10 times more than that of agricultural land. The stamp duty is 7% in both cases. However, the valuation of property is done on the basis of circle rates. So anyone showing residential land as agricultural will have to pay stamp duty that is eight to 10 times lesser,” said KK Mishr, assistant commissioner (stamps & registration

“There could be about 200 such cases in different sub-registrar areas and I have directed them to make inquiries at the earliest and submit a report on this. Further, as per rules, the sub-registrars will provide reports of any sale deed registered by them and send the same within seven days to the tehsildar who will further check the land use before undertaking mutation in revenue records (changing the seller’s name to the name of purchaser),” Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate, said.

The DM said in case sub-registrars fail to do so, their names will be referred to the state administration for action.

“We have also sought directions of the state government with regard to areas where the agricultural land has been reduced considerably on account of rapid development. We have sought directions from the government if the circle rates for agricultural land can be deleted from the list of such areas,” the DM said.

He said he has also sought directions from the government with regard to the conduct of persons providing affidavits under oath while taking up registries.

“We have also sought directions if any criminality is involved in cases where the seller’s affidavit — that the land is of agricultural use — turns out to be false. So we have sought directions from the state government if this can be treated as a criminal offence. By giving such false affidavits, people are evading stamp duty and over time, farmlands have turned into residential areas,” he said.

The DM on Friday gave directions to sub-registrars to check up on all such sale deeds that were executed in the past one year.