THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Registration Department recorded its highest single-day earning this fiscal on Wednesday — Rs 44 crore, as people flocked to the sub-registrar offices to register land deals before the revised fair value of land and stamp duty rates come into effect on April 1.
The average daily collection of the department by way of registration fees and stamp duty this fiscal was in the Rs 8 crore-Rs 10 crore range. The number of documents registered on Wednesday was 8,500 as against the fiscal’s average that stood between 2,500 and 3,000.
The 10 pc hike proposed in fair value of land will come into effect on April 1. Stamp duty on gift, partition, settlement and release deeds will also go up.
The current stamp duty rate for gift, partition, settlement and release deed is Rs 1,000. In the new fiscal, these documents will be charged a stamp duty of a minimum of Rs 1,000 or 0.25 pc of sale value, whichever is higher. The Registration Department is also poised to register record revenue this fiscal. The total revenue as on February 28 this year was Rs 2,337.61 crore as against Rs 2,277.29 crore recorded in February 2017. The number of documents registered was 7.89 lakh and 7.70 lakh respectively.
Registration Minister G Sudhakaran said the government’s efforts to clean up the department was a huge success.