Maharashtra: Government Doubles Document Fees for Property Deals After 23 Years

When registering an agreement for the sale or purchase of real estate, citizens will have to pay more. The state has raised the document processing fees from Rs 20 to Rs 40 per page of the agreement. The stamp duty, registration fee, and document processing charges are the three forms of payment that individuals must make when they visit the registration offices. The software company that manages the computerisation of the entire registration procedure recovers the document handling fees, while the state kitty receives the stamp duty and registration fee.

The present fees of Rs 20 were introduced in 2001 when the state government authorised a BOT (build, operate, and transfer)-based project for document registration, stated the state revenue department's government resolution (GR). Due to the rising expenses of software development, the data centre, and the server infrastructure for the web-based system, the charges that have been in place since 2001 need to be revised. A fee hike is also necessary for the support system that is designed to ensure the registration system operates efficiently.

Consumer organisations, however, claimed that the government was unjustly taxing people in the name of modernisation.

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Sachin Shingvi, head of the Association of Service Providers in Maharashtra, said to TOI, "Stamp duty and registration fees currently bring in 7% of the property value for the state. Charging Rs 40 per page for document scanning is nothing more than defrauding the average person." Additionally, Shingvi pointed out the charge structure's irregularities. For instance, rental agreements cost Rs 300 per document even when no scanning or document handling is necessary. This is wholly unwarranted. Advocates for consumer rights have called for increased openness in the department's computation and application of these fees. Some have even proposed that rather than charging the public for these digital infrastructure costs, the government should pay for them.