The recent announcement by the State Government on revision of registration fee for deposit of title and lease deeds, and registration fee for power of attorney has evoked mixed response.
According to an official of the Registration Department in Coimbatore, for deposit of title deeds, the ceiling on stamp duty has been revised to Rs. 25,000 from Rs. 5000. The ceiling on registration fees has been revised to Rs. 5000 from Rs. 1000. The minimum stamp duty is 0.5 per cent and the fee is one per cent.
For power of attorney, the fee has been revised to Rs. 1,000 for family members (mother, father, son, daughter, spouse, siblings, and grandchildren) and Rs. 10,000 for other. It was Rs. 50 earlier. There is no change in stamp duty for power of attorney. In the case of lease deed, the fee has been revised to Rs. 20,000 from Rs.5000.
K. Jayaraman, President of Coimbatore Association of Realtors, says the revision for power of attorney will bring more revenue to the government. He suggested that the fees can even be specific percentage of property value. The increase in duty and fee for title deeds are likely to affect transactions. Lease deeds are mostly by companies and these are for long-term. Hence, the revision will not affect them much. Some of the property developers point out that the revision has hit the property market. Consumers who go in for loans to purchase properties are hit as the interest rates have also gone up and are likely to increase further. There are instances of consumers who have booked properties saying that the developer should pay the revised fee as they were not informed earlier.
President of Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India, Coimbatore centre, V. Subramanian, says the government should reconsider its decision so that investments into the property segment are not affected.
