Registration made compulsory
By Staff Reporter

Registration of immovable property is now compulsory. Union Cabinet decision on this is firm. This will ensure legal transfer or sale of immovable properties, also the area restriction is a compulsion. Earlier registration could be done at Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta or Delhi depending upon which of the places has a lower rate for registration. This resulted is loss of revenue to the state.
Registration Act, Transfer of Property Act and the Indian Stamp act are also to be amended. A legislation to this effect is soon to be brought to the next parliament session.
The Indian Stamp Act is to levy a a certain percentage on stamp duty for contracts. The registration for property is 1 % or Rs. 10,000/- which ever is higher.
All and all this move by Union Cabinet will definitely curb the illegal / forced registration in the future.

Registration Fee

The Registration Fee and Stamp Duty Payers Association has brought to the notice of the Honourable Minister for Revenue as well as the Inspector General of Registration that as of date franking facilities are available to the residents of the Mumbai at Town Hall, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Road, Near Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai – 400023 and at MMRDA Building, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (East), Mumbai – 400051. It has been the suggestion of the Association that franking facilities should be available at the central Suburbs also. In this connection, the Association has also pointed out that as of date, franking facilities are available at the Central Suburbs also. In this connection, the Association has also pointed out that as of date, franking facilities are available at only two places i.e. Mumbai City and in Western Suburb. No facility for payment of Stamp Duty within a few kilometers distance is available to the lakhs of residents between Dadar to Mulund and Wadala to Mankhurd. As a result of the same, huge amount of cash to be carried out by the members residing in the Central Suburbs.

The Association has been given to understand that having regards to the practical difficulties faced by the residents of the Central Suburbs, the authorities are considering installation of franking machine at Ground floor at the Chembur office in the month of April 2000. The address of the Sub Registrars Office is Ground floor, New Administrative Building, Phase II, Ramkrishna Chemburkar Marg, Near Chembur Fine Arts Hall, Chembur (East), Mumbai – 400071. When the franking facilities would start at Chembur, it would be a big relief to the Stamp Duty Payers at Central Suburbs.

The Association also requests the authorities to accept the cash at all the office upto a sum of Rs. 50,000/-. At present only cash upto Rs 25,000/- is accepted by the authorities. The Association also requests the authorities that they should deliver the franked documents on the same day to the parties so that they should deliver the franked documents on the same day to the parties so that the mental related transactions, the parties executed the documents only after the proper stamp duty has been paid on the documents.
The Association had through its press release in 1999 requested the authorities that the map of various places in Maharashtra as well as the market value of various localities of Maharashtra should be available to the common man through the medium of internet. The Association is given to understand that the website with the market value of property will be available on the Internet very shortly.

The Association further states that on account of the recent amendments to the Rent Act all transactions relating to rental premises will have to be compulsorily registered. This will increase the pressure of work at the Sub Registrars for the city of Mumbai. It is not surprising to find that because of heavy work load a lot of pressure is there on the Sub-Registrars. At times, one has to spend more than five hours just to register a document. Also the precious time of the Tax payers is wasted in complying with the bureaucratic formalities. The stamp duty rates for transfer of tenancy as per Article 5 (g-d) of the Bombay Stamp Act 1958 are the same for all the areas of the city of Mumbai which is Rs. 1,000 per sq.metre for commercial premises and Rs. 100/- per sq.metre for residential premises. There is a wide-up gap in the prevailing prices at Nariman Point, Peddar Road, Govandi & Charkop. Yet from the stamp duty point of view on transfer of tenancy the stamp duty liability is the same. The Association herewith requests the newly appointed Inspector General of Registration Shri Bhoge to reduce the hardships of the common man and take pragmatic steps to simplify the Bombay Stamp Act 1958 and appoint more staff at the Sub Registrars Office to reduce the hardships of the tax payers.