4 months ago
71
With the State Exchequer in dire straits, the Registration department in Ernakulam district has intensified dispatching revenue recovery intimations for stamp duty and registration fee evasions through undervaluation in land registration deals.
Initially, the government had ordered sending intimations in all evasion cases dating back to 1986. But this was followed by revised instructions to limit it to cases from 2017 for the time being. According to the department, while over 22,000 evasion cases have been detected since 1986, it may come to about 6,000 if cases from 2017 alone were to be considered.
Recipients of revenue recovery intimations will get a 28-day window to pay off the difference between what they actually paid as stamp duty and registration fee and what they should have paid if not for undervaluing. “They will have to pay the rate as was prevailing at the time of registration. Unlike during the period before the fair value system came into force in 2015 when the combined stamp duty and registration fee fluctuated wildly and had even hit a high of 13.50%, since then stamp duty and registration fee have more or less stabilised at 8% and 2% respectively of the purchase price,” said sources in the department.
Once the window for clearing the dues expires, the cases will be forwarded to the Revenue department at the collectorate and from there to the village offices concerned for issuing revenue recovery notices, in which case the defaulter will have to pay an additional penalty of 7% over and above the pending stamp duty and registration fee dues.
Defaulters have no mechanism to appeal the assessment of dues other than approaching the High Court, in which case they will have to deposit 20% of the total dues upfront. Registration department sources said showing the fair value price in documents is no guarantee to get away with undervaluation as legally fair value or value of the property or consideration of transfer, whichever is higher, needs to be taken into account.
“A registering officer cannot decline registration where the document shows the fair value for the area. But as per Section 45B (1) of the Kerala Stamp Act, the officer can refer the instrument of transfer of property to the Collector, if he or she has reason to believe that the value of the property or the consideration by the transfer, as the case may be, has not been truly set forth in the instrument,” sources said.
