Stamp duty relief for landowners

Landowners will no longer have to pay stamp duty if they retain some flats or shops after their properties have been developed. The state government said that a circular to this effect would be issued within two weeks.

Landowners will no longer have to pay stamp duty if they retain some flats or shops after their properties have been developed. The state government said that a circular to this effect would be issued within two weeks.

HT Image

Additional government pleader Niteen Deshpande informed the Bombay high court that the inspector general of stamps would issue a circular stating no stamp duty would be payable if landowners retained flats and shops after development of their properties.

The division bench of justice AM Khanwilkar and justice Ashok Bhangale was hearing a PIL filed by Pune lawyer Chandrashekhar Nanekar seeking a declaration that landowners were not required to pay stamp duty on flats and shops retained by them after getting their property developed by a builder/developer.

The lawyer said retaining some commercial and residential premises after getting your own property developed by a builder/developer cannot be treated as conveyance, as envisaged under the Bombay Stamp Act, 1958, and therefore no stamp duty can be levied in such a transaction.

Nanekar approached the high court through advocate Surel Shah saying that those aware of the law were unnecessarily made to go through the lengthy adjudicatory proceedings under the Bombay Stamp Act.