The Maharashtra government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis declared the Maharashtra Mudrank Shulakh Abhay Yojana 2023 (stamp duty amnesty scheme) during a cabinet meeting held on Wednesday, November 23.
Here’s all you need to know about it:
What is the amnesty scheme
Under this scheme, the Revenue department has allowed a complete waiver of the stamp duty fees and the penalty amount imposed following deferred payment for documents both registered and unregistered between January 1 1980 and December 2020.
“In respect of deeds executed between January 1, 1980 and December 31, 2020, but not filed or registered, the entire stamp duty and penalty payable to the Revenue department will be exempted under the Abhay Scheme,” a statement issued by the government said.
Will the entire penalty be waived
Sources say that as of now, it is not clear as to what percentage of waiver will be applicable on the penalty fees. The scheme is aimed to facilitate citizens and housing societies.
While the government in the cabinet meeting announced that the waiver will be both on stamp duty fees and the penalty, Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association Chairman Ramesh Prabhu feels the government will offer only a concession on the penalty amount and not a complete waiver.
Festive offer
Prabhu added that he feels that the pending stamp duty fees have to be paid as mandated under the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958.
How will the stamp duty amnesty scheme benefit people
The scheme will be offered in two phases by the Revenue department. The first phase of the scheme will be launched from December 1, 2023, to January 31, 2024, and the second phase will commence on February 1, 2024 and run till March 31, 2024. The details of both the phases are yet to be announced.
It will help housing societies which can take benefit of the Deemed Conveyance and also get documents which were not sufficiently stamped regulated.
Prabhu welcomed the move and said it will help exempt penalties up to 400 per cent on documents registered or unregistered.
He further explained, “For instance, if a document is registered but not stamped, say 20 years ago, and the stamp duty fees was say Rs 1 lakh at that time. If an individual wishes to get the documents stamped now, then the penalty amount which will be imposed is 2 per cent per month and lead to an amount much higher than the principal stamp duty fees amount.”
He added, “With the introduction of the amnesty scheme, some concession can be possible on the penalty amount, enabling people and housing society members to come forward and execute the stamp duty registration.”
What necessitated the amnesty scheme
There are several agreements for sale, conveyance deeds and other documents that are not properly stamped as requested under the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958.
As per section 34 of the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 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 of the documents need to pay not only the deficit stamp duty but also a penalty on the deficit amount at the rate of 2 per cent per month.
The penalty amount may be up to 400 per cent of the stamp duty. Thus, it used to be a great burden on the people. Several people never paid the deficit duty on such documents, leading to revenue losses of the government.
Even societies are not able to do the Deemed Conveyance if there are many flat owners who have not paid the pending duty fees.
In order to collect the revenue on documents not properly stamped or to give relief to the citizen on the penalty amount and to promote Deemed Conveyance, the Revenue department announced the new stamp duty amnesty scheme.
The documents registered with sub-registrar of assurances, which are not properly stamped or unregistered documents and on which stamp duty is escaped, will be covered under this scheme.
The documents must be executed on a stamp paper purchased from the authorised vendors of the department or from the authorised franking centre. If the documents are executed on bogus stamp papers or on a stamp paper sold through Telgi vendors, such documents will not be able to get the benefits of this scheme.
Pending cases
In Maharashtra, there are about 2.32 lakh cases of disputes over stamp duty paid on registered properties, most of which date back to the 1980s. The disputed amount is about Rs 1,000 crore while the penalty levied on this is Rs 1,800 crore.
To expedite the recovery and weed out pendency, the Revenue department is considering launching the amnesty scheme in two phases.