The Registration and Stamps department continued to report significant improvement in revenue through sale deeds and registration of open plots for the third month in a row.
The department has registered more than ₹900 crore revenue till March 29 and the figure is expected to be around ₹960 crore till March 31 after reconciliation of the revenue figures from across the State. The department had earned revenue of ₹995 crore in January and ₹865 crore in February.
As anticipated, it reported impressive figures in March too owing to various factors like the rush for concluding the transactions before the end of the financial year.
Senior officials said the department had posted overall revenue in excess of ₹5,200 crore through registrations in spite of the odds it had to face during the year that ended on Wednesday. Registration process suffered on account of COVID-19 pandemic since the beginning of the fiscal year, reporting sharp decline. This was followed by the government’s decision to halt registration owing to enactment of new revenue laws, which brought the process to a grinding halt. The process, however, started picking up after passage of the new revenue laws aimed at overhauling the revenue administration by the legislature. Registration process was opened up initially for the agricultural properties in November and non-agricultural properties the next month.
Agricultural properties are being registered through the Dharani portal and the registration of non-agricultural properties has been progressing in the normal mode. The department reported revenue of ₹456 crore — ₹375.99 crore through sale deeds and registration of open plots and another ₹80.99 crore through other charges — since December after the restrictions on registrations were relaxed.
The State government, in the budget estimates for 2021-22, set a stiff target of ₹12,000 crore for the department during the next financial year starting Thursday. “We expect significant natural growth next fiscal which shows good prospects as far as land transactions are concerned,” a senior official told The Hindu .
Added to this, the department is hopeful that the government gives its go ahead for revision of market values, the process which has not taken place since eight years. Officials said the last time the market values were revised in the State was in 2013 and since then, there had been no revision.
