A combination of factors, including the economic downturn, led to a substantial decline in the number of properties registered in the State in the last financial year.
When asked about the drastic decline during the last financial year in the number of properties registered, a senior official from the Registration Department listed three major factors.
First off, whenever a revision in the guideline value took place, people advanced their registration process even before the new guideline values were declared officially. Secondly, the economic downturn had a very strong impact on the real estate sector, and, thirdly, the revised guideline value was close to the market value. Due to these three reasons, the number of properties registered in the State came down drastically in the last fiscal, the officer said.
A similar situation prevailed in the State during 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10. The registration during these three financial years stood at 7.97 per cent, 5.27 per cent and minus 3.59 per cent respectively. The officials said during 2006-07, a growth rate of 23.90 per cent was recorded in the State.
In addition to the decline in the number of properties registered, stamp duty on instruments conveyance also came down to five per cent, from six per cent, since April 1 last year.
Increase in revenue collection
However, despite the reduction in the number of documents and stamp duty, revenue collection had shown a fair increase of 12.62 per cent during the last financial year, as guideline values were brought in line with the market value from April 1 last year, the officials added.
Last year, the government introduced payment of stamp duty and registration fee through banks. The government through an order approved 11 banks for collection.
Necessary accreditation from the Reserve Bank of India would be obtained very soon. The State government had allocated Rs. 28.20 crore for preparing the software required for the process.
A senior official from the Registration Department said it had already acquired the software and its security audit was now in progress. The software was developed by the National Informatics Centre and once the security audit is completed, online/offline payment of stamp duty and registration fee will be launched, the officer said.
