Stamp duty collections by the Tamil Nadu Registrations Department jumped 23 per cent up to November end in the current financial year compared with the same period last year.
According to an official press release, the tax levied on sale of immovable property has given the State Government revenue of Rs 3,964.80 crore in the eight-month period compared with Rs 3,218.90 crore in the corresponding period last year.
The stamp duty income has increased by Rs 745.90 crore. The State Government has set a target of Rs 6,492 crore for the current year, the release said. Official statistics indicate that the target envisages 30 per cent revenue growth as compared with that 2010-11 income of Rs 5,020.50 crore with 32.80 lakh documents registered.
The revenue last year was 20 per cent higher than that of the previous year when it was Rs 3,818.25 crore with 27.31 lakh documents registered.
The Minister for Commercial Taxes and Registrations, Mr S.S. Krishnamoorthy, conducted a review meeting today where issues relating to expediting registration processes and upgrading infrastructure were discussed, the release said.
The ‘Samadhan' scheme, a conciliation measure to settle disputes in fixing property value for levying tax, launched on November 1, 2011, has helped resolve disputes relating to 4,441 documents netting the Government a revenue of Rs 20.66 crore as of December 9, 2011.
The Government estimates that over 34,879 documents which could yield it revenue of Rs 541.31 crore are locked up in disputes under Section 47A of the Indian Stamp Act.
The Minister has said that the conciliation should be expedited to free the documents for the public and revenue to the Government.
The Registration Department has launched the process of revising guideline values, the bench mark based on which the stamp duty of 6 per cent, surcharge of 2 per cent and registration fee of 1 per cent are set for real estate transactions.
The last revision was in 2007 and the current revision will realign the rates in line with the prevailing market prices. This exercise will help increase the revenue from this levy.