Himachal relaxes fee norms for debit-ridden farmers

In a major breather for debit-ridden farmers in Himachal Pradesh, the state cabinet on Tuesday waved-off stamp duty as well as registration fee of their mortgaged land, an official said here.

The duty exemption would be applicable on clearance of the bank dues by a farmer under one-time settlement.

This will facilitate the farmers to get back their sold or mortgaged land without additional burden of stamp duty and registration fee, a government spokesperson told IANS.

The cabinet meeting was presided over by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

This has been done to provide relief to those distressed farmers whose land has been sold or ownership transferred in favour of the bank and recorded in revenue records, the official added.

A decision was also taken to constitute the state monitoring committee under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013 with the state financial commissioner of revenue as its chairman.

The cabinet also decided to levy 9 percent administrative and contingency charges on land acquisitions undertaken by the state government through land acquisition collectors and special land acquisition unit for the central government for construction of the national highways, railways and defence projects.