Tamil Nadu government on Friday announced that the stamp duty on property transfer arising in respect of amalgamation or reconstruction of companies will be fixed at 2% of market value of the immovable property or 0.6% of the aggregate of the market value of shares, whichever is higher. The registration fees payable on such transactions will be fixed at a maximum of ₹30,000.
The announcement made in the State budget for 2019-20, removes the confusion and ambiguity prevailing in the industry, after a circular was issued in November last year on the levy of stamp duty on such transactions.
“Earlier there was no stamp duty charged on such transactions but since the G.O. was issued in November 2018, there was ambiguity in property transactions where full stamp duty and registration fees was expected and interpreted,” Sarita Hunt, Managing Director – Chennai & Coimbatore, JLL India said. Budget clearly spells out the stamp duty and registration charges involved and this will enable developers be certain on the cost, thereby reducing the uncertainty, she added.
K. Vaitheeswaran, a lawyer and tax consultant said the November-circular led to lot of interpretation on the levy and the budget announcement has clearly specified how it would be implemented.
He said that now the State government has to issue a notification on how this would be implemented.
The Confederation of Indian Industry said that it welcomed the announcement on stamp duty concession for transfer of property on account of mergers and acquisitions, which is one of the key representations of CII to the government of Tamil Nadu towards promoting ease of doing business across the State.
The Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the Tamil Nadu budget has provided the much needed clarity on the stamp duty applicable on amalgamations and reconstruction of companies.
An amount of ₹13,122.81 crore is projected to be the tax collection from stamp duty and registration charges in the Budget Estimates 2019-2020.
