Pune: Revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule informed the state assembly on Thursday that the recovery of deficient stamp duty for property transactions in Borivali, Worli, and Andheri—as flagged by the CAG report—is underway, and action has been taken on valid objections.In a written reply to a question raised by MLAs Ashokrao Mane and Santosh Danve, Bawankule confirmed that the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) March report had flagged incorrect classification of stamp duty transactions in these areas.“At the Borivali-2 sub-registrar office, a development rights agreement was wrongly classified and stamp duty charged at 2%, instead of the applicable 5%, causing a loss of Rs10.50 crore to the state exchequer,” the minister stated in his reply.Responding to allegations regarding undervaluation of a property in Worli and incorrect classification of a document at the Haveli-5 office in Pimpri Chinchwad, Bawankule said the claims were partly true.“A development agreement registered at the Mumbai City-III office Iin Worli, which had been adjudicated by the stamp collector, Mumbai City, was re-examined under Section 53A of the Maharashtra Stamp Act following an audit objection. After reassessment of the property’s valuation, additional stamp duty of Rs25.11 lakh was recovered,” he said.In Pimpri Chinchwad, the accountant general, Nagpur, objected to the classification of the document registered at the Haveli-5 office, contending that it was a lease deed and not a leave-and-licence agreement. The audit authority estimated a shortfall of Rs29.41 lakh in stamp duty and Rs29,000 in registration fees. However, the Inspector General of Registration and Controller of Stamps, Maharashtra, rejected the objection and submitted a compliance report to the accountant general seeking exclusion of the audit observation from the revenue audit report, the minister stated in his reply.The minister said allegations of irregular stamp duty concessions in Andheri and Palghar were not true. He said a development agreement registered at the Andheri-1 office adjudicated by the stamp collector, Andheri, had been correctly classified as a slump sale under Article 25(a). However, a stamp duty concession introduced through a notification dated Aug 29, 2020, was mistakenly extended to the transaction even though it was applicable only to documents covered under Article 25(b).The objection raised by the accountant general was therefore found to be valid. “Accordingly, recovery of Rs77.21 lakh in deficient stamp duty was ordered under Section 53A of the Maharashtra Stamp Act, and the amount has since been recovered from the concerned party. No such irregularity was found in Palghar,” the minister said.
