Curation Team
PUNE: Around 2.32 lakh stamp duty defaulters between 1980 and 2020 could get a relief from penalty if they cleared the dues in the next two months, a senior property registration department official said on Thursday.
The department had identified the defaulters during an audit. The official said the amnesty scheme, which would provide an exemption in stamp duty and penalty, was announced at the state cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The maximum defaulters are from Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Nagpur. The government is expected to earn around Rs3,000 crore if the citizens responded to the scheme and made the payment. The amnesty scheme will help people get a waiver on the penalty amount if they pay during the period announced by the state government. The payment period will be in two phases, from December 1 to January 31, 2024, and from February 1 to March 31.
Instances of the deficits came up when there was partial evasion of stamp duty at the time of executing and registering property documents by buyers. The penalty is levied when such cases of deficit stamp duty are reported during the audit. Subsequently, notices are issued.
Deputy secretary (stamps and registration) SS Bajaj told TOI that the scheme would help those who were earlier served notices but did not pay due to the huge amounts. “The scheme will prevent any further litigation,” he added.
Citizen activist Shrikant Joshi said people who had not registered their old documents due to heavy penalties would be able to utilize the scheme. “It will benefit many citizens and societies. The scheme will also help them make their old documents legitimate,” he said.
Ramesh Prabhu, chairman of Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association, said many documents, such as agreements for sale and conveyance deeds, were not properly stamped as requested under the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958. “If insufficient stamp duty is paid on certain documents, they are not considered as evidence in the court of law. In order to regularise such documents, the beneficiary needs to pay not only deficit stamp duty but also penalty on such amount,” he said.
