Govt Launches Amnesty Scheme for Stamp-duty Evaders

The Government of Maharastra launched an amnesty schemes for those buyers People who evaded stamp duty on their property purchase agreements.

These buyers can regularize their transactions by paying a nominal penalty in an amnesty scheme.

The state’s revenue department has said that under the Stamp Duty Amnesty Scheme, flat owners who did not pay their stamp duty on time will have to pay a penalty of Rs 500 for dues up to Rs 25,000 and Rs 1,000 for a stamp duty over Rs 25,000.

Otherwise, the residents would have had to pay a hefty penalty of 2 per cent on the total duty amount per month from the date of purchasing the flat, with the maximum limit being 200 per cent.

The amnesty scheme is applicable to residential properties and will benefit housing societies that want to go for re-development of their buildings.

Buyers usually evade stamp-duty in case of buying flats in societies which face trouble while obtaining conveyance as a few members of the society choose to avoid paying stamp duty on their flats. Around 50,000 cases could be settled under the scheme which include pending and disputed cases and hope to recover Rs 500 crore from the amnesty scheme.

Stamp duty is the second highest source of revenue for the Maharashtra state government. A whopping sum of Rs 6500 crore was collected as stamp duty from 1.5 lakh registrations in 2007.

A whopping sum of Rs 6500 crore was collected as stamp duty from 1.5 lakh registrations in 2007.