The collection of stamp duty from non-registrable documents could well exceed Rs. 400 crore this financial year even as the Department of Stamps and Registrations has started cracking down on those evading duties.
While payment of duty was made mandatory on 30 non-registrable documents over a decade ago, the collection received due attention only this financial year with the Government even appointing a former IAS officer as a consultant to help the department staff.
With an amendment to the Karnataka Stamp Act, Section 67B was inserted in August 1999, bringing non-registrable transactions under the ambit of stamp duty. The documents include sale agreements, general agreements, share certificate, lease deeds, power of attorney, insurance policies, lease deeds in respect of movable and immovable properties and memorandum relating to share transaction.
10 per cent
“While the total stamp duty collected in the State this year stands at about Rs. 4,000 crore, stamp duty from non-registrable documents amounts to about 10 per cent, which is a considerable achievement,” a department source told The Hindu . “People knew about the provisions of the Karnataka Stamp Act, but were not paying the duty since it was not implemented,” a senior official said. While the duty was never paid on commodities trading, meagre duty with as little as Rs. 500 was paid by some stockbrokers, sources said.
However, with the department taking the implementation seriously, the official pointed out that 90 financial institutions pay more than Rs. 1 lakh a month each. The net result is that if 21 stockbrokers/institutions paid Rs. 3 crore in 2009-2010, as many as 123 institutions/brokers now pay at least Rs. 2 crore each month. By the end of the third quarter of this fiscal year, the department had collected Rs. 248 crore with Rs. 228.65 crore coming from Bangalore city alone.
Expectations
Besides the financial institutions, collections have also come from rent/lease agreements in big commercial complexes across the city, and about Rs. 100 crore duty is expected from this segment.
According to department officials, collection could be far more in the coming years, and they expect stamp duty from the non-registrable documents alone to exceed Rs. 2,000 crore a year.
