State to waive off stamp duty on flats in integrated townships

The Maharashtra government is proposing a change to its stamp duty waiver in order to boost affordable housing. Under the proposed change, township developers would be able to surrender their 50% stamp duty waiver and pass the benefit on to flat buyers, potentially reducing flat prices in tier 1 and tier 2 cities. The proposal has been approved by revenue ministers and is expected to be cleared by deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and chief minister Eknath Shinde soon. It will then be presented to the cabinet for approval.

Mumbai: In a bid to give a boost to affordable housing in the integrated township policy (ITP), the state government is proposing tweaking its stamp duty waiver. The township developers would be allowed to surrender the 50% waiver in stamp duty taken earlier while purchasing land parcels if they wish to pass it on to flat buyers. According to revenue department officials, this would help reduce the flat prices in the tier 1 and tier 2 cities.

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The state government introduced ITP in 2018 to give a boost to the township by implementing residential, and commercial projects on over 100 acres. Among other facilities and tax waivers, the 50% waiver in stamp duty was one of the incentives given by the government. This helped the development of the townships in the cities in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, cities like Pune, Nashik, and Pimpri-Chinchwad where over 30 such townships were registered in the last few years.

“The government is now tweaking its policy to facilitate developers to pass on the benefit to flat buyers. The policy allows the 50% waiver on the first document registered for the registration of either the land the flats, or shops constructed on the land. Some of the townships had taken the benefit while registering the land, while some had taken for the flats. The ones who had taken it for the land parcel now want to avail it for the flats to help themselves sell it. We are now allowing it to avail it for the flat if the developers pay off the earlier benefit along with the penalty on it,” an official from the revenue department said.

He said that the proposal has been approved by revenue ministers, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and is expected to be cleared by deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and chief minister Eknath Shinde soon. The proposal will soon come before the cabinet for its nod.

“We do not expect much of the burden, but it will help in the reduction of the prices of the residential and commercial properties in these townships. “The cumulative stamp duty levied on flats is much more than on the land parcel and thus the developers are interested in transferring the benefit to the flats constructed by them. The decision is by the government policy of affordable housing,” said an official from the Urban Development Department, which had moved the proposal in 2018.