The Registration and Stamps department is fast emerging as one of the major revenue generation sources for the State government, thanks to the real estate market that has been exponentially growing since the abatement of COVID-19 pandemic.
The department has witnessed registration of 20.38 lakh documents last year as compared to 16 lakh in 2019-20, and clocked revenue of ₹12,429 crore, falling a tad short of the total ₹12,500 crore projected in the budget. Nevertheless, it was the highest revenue generated since the formation of the State in 2014.
Rangareddy district registered highest revenue of ₹3,502 crore followed by Medchal-Malkajgiri (₹1,985 crore) and Hyderabad (₹1,184 crore) during the financial year, indicating heightened real estate activity. Documents registered in the three districts, too, were on the higher side – 2.42 lakh, 1.61 lakh and 59,328, respectively.
The rise in number of transactions over the past few years can be seen from the fact that revenue from the department has risen from a little over ₹2,700 crore in 2014-15 to over ₹12,400 crore last year.
Surge in investments in the real estate sector since the formation of Telangana can be gauged from the revenue growth that the department has achieved over the past seven years. Starting with ₹2,746 crore in 2014-15, the department’s revenue increased to ₹3,786 crore in 2015-16, ₹4,249 crore in 2016-17, ₹5,177 crore in 2017-18, ₹6,612.75 crore in 2018-19, ₹7,061 crore in 2019-20, ₹5,260 crore in 2020-21 and ₹12,429 crore in 2021-22.
Drop in revenue during 2020-21 was largely due to COVID-19, but the department has returned to normalcy much faster than the others once the pandemic-related restrictions ended. The number of documents registered has also witnessed a steady rise from 8.27 lakh to 20.38 lakh during the same period. Of the 20.38 lakh documents registered during 2021-22, 8.38 lakh pertained to agricultural transactions earning revenue of ₹1,760 crore and 12.05 lakh non-agricultural transactions amounting to ₹9,237 crore. The department earned a balance ₹1,431 crore through non-registration activities.
The department has registered close to ₹2,600-crore revenue in the first two months of the current fiscal and is confident of sustaining the tempo till the end of the fiscal to reach ₹15,600 crore projected in the budget estimates.
Realty boom
The manner in which the real estate boom is continuing could be seen from the steep escalation in the number of transactions over the past one year, notwithstanding a revision in base values and stamp duty rates. The revision was made for the first time in eight years as the government of this new State took time to settle down in terms of basic amenities and other infrastructure.
Affordable living and boom in the IT industry are said to be the prime reasons behind the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) region emerging as one of the favoured destinations for IT professionals who are showing preference for investing in real estate in the city. In all, 141 offices of sub-registrars are engaged in transaction of properties in urban areas and the offices of over 580 mandal revenue officers have been entrusted with the responsibility of transactions relating to agricultural properties.
Interestingly, land/ construction-related activities have come down in Old Hyderabad while they remained higher than moderate in the GHMC area. But a majority of the activity is seen in the Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts abutting the city which together are contributing to close to 50% of the total revenue generated through Registration and Stamps department.
“Trend of urbanisation is continuing as can be seen from the developments in Mokila, Shankarpally and other villages in the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority jurisdiction. Agricultural lands are being converted to non-agricultural purposes and then turned to open plots, villas, apartments and other real estate ventures,” a senior official said.
Pioneering initiatives
The Registration department, meanwhile, saw initiatives like Dharani portal, the one-stop shop for land transactions, through which all agricultural transactions are presently taking place. The portal is the second such innovation after CARD (computer aided registration of documents) project, which was a pioneering initiative in the erstwhile united State.
The CARD model has been upgraded since the creation of the new State and simplified to such an extent that all transactions can take place online once the official logs into the system along with the details of the parties concerned. “The applications in the system are constantly updated from the central server itself and there are no complaints of delays in transactions anymore as the operations are online and instant,” the official asserted.
The portal has been designed to handle transactions like settlement, exchange, mortgage, lease, sale, gift and other deeds, as also matters like Development cum General Power of Attorney (DGPA), which matter a lot for non-agricultural transactions.
The portal, after encountering initial hiccups, has almost stabilised now with over 15.5 lakh transactions carried out since its inception. “There are, of course, data errors relating to type of land, spelling errors in the names and others. As much as 1.52 crore acres is covered through Dharani and the mistakes are confined to less than one lakh acres. We have introduced a correction module, taking the total modules in the system to 33 and sought applications from interested parties. So far, we have received close to 19,000 applications, which is far below expectations,” the official told The Hindu.
On the flip side
The department continues to face some teething problems like the absence of own offices at different places. The department, however, is managing its affairs through rented buildings in several places while there are also complaints about short supply of stationery items like white papers, toners and others. Absence of franking machines in several places is one major problem faced by the sub-registrars, especially while dealing with high-value transactions.
“Franking machines are required for big-ticket transactions as some banks are still insisting on them. We have been directing the parties to nearby offices where franking machines are present in such transactions,” a sub-registrar on the city outskirts said.
There are alternatives like adhesive labels but some banks/financial institutions are not accepting the documents registered through them, complicating the problem. According to him, franking machines were not provided in the sub-registrar offices (SROs) opened after 2007 as there was no supply of machines from the suppliers.
Senior officials, however, contend that, claiming there is no big need for franking machines now as e-stamp has been made available as an alternative. Moreover, the models of franking machines being used are largely outdated and efforts are under way to introduce new machines by integrating them with e-stamp module.
“We have asked banks and financial institutions to use these machines. Orders have been placed for new franking machines and the issue is likely to be stabilised by June-July,” senior bureaucrat V. Seshadri who worked as inspector-general of Registration and Stamps till recently, said. He said the department has indeed faced problems on account of franking machines between March and November last year since introduction of Dharani, but the situation has stabilised a lot since.
The SROs are a relieved lot after ‘municipal mutations’ has been brought under their purview. “People are very happy as the names on the documents are being changed prior to the scanning stage itself. This has ensured that they do not make rounds of the offices of mandal revenue offices and other officials concerned,” he said.
