THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Undervaluation of property deals can hamper your future sales plans. For the Registration Department has started recording such cases in its online database. Sources said the facility enables a sub-registrar to know whether an undervaluation notice was served on a property under his jurisdiction. “There is no ban on transaction of a property which faces an undervaluation notice. But the sub-registrar is bound to inform about the notice to the prospective buyer,” an officer said.
Though there is no ban on registration, sources said, the issue will discourage prospective buyers. “Normally, banks and other financial institutions won’t consider such a property for mortgage,” sources said. “However, the financial liability vests with the person who made the transaction in question, even if the property changed hands later.”
Order yet to be issued on amnesty scheme
Meanwhile, the government order on the amnesty scheme for settling property undervaluation cases is yet to be issued by the Taxes Department. The scheme was announced by Finance Minister Thomas Isaac in the 2018-19 budget, with the government expecting the scheme to mobilise `300 crore.Though the formation of Settlement Commissions headed by judges was announced in the budget, the government later dropped the plan owing to a shortage of judges and the high costs involved. Isaac told Express he will inquire into the delay in issuing the order.
The scheme offers defaulters the option to pay 30 per cent of the deficient stamp duty and settle cases. Cases in which deficient stamp duty is up to `5,000 will be exempted fully. As per an earlier estimate of the Department, there are over 10 lakh property deals in which undervaluation was detected. But the current decision to exclude cases of deficient stamp duty of up to `5,000 will bring the total figure down.