Kerala To Slash Stamp Duty On Land Deeds

In a bid to give further impetus to the housing and real estate sector, the Kerala government is planning to reduce the registration fee and stamp duty on land transactions to six per cent.

The prevailing rates are between 11 and 13.5 per cent of the total land cost, depending on the location.

Emphasising that the new rates would be introduced once the government completed the process of fixing a fair value for land in each locality, Kerala rural development minister C F Thomas said a draft list of locality-wise fair value would be published next month.

People would get a month's time to register their complaints and suggestions. The process of fixation of fair value would be completed by October, he said.

 

The proposed amendment to the Stamp Duty Act, 1959, is based on the recommendations of the State Law Reforms Committee and his would make the registration fee and stamp duty in Kerala the lowest in the country.

The proposal takes into account the National Housing and Habitat Policy calling for rationalisation of stamp duty by various states.

The committee has also recommended annulment of the Land Utilisation Order and enactment of a new Land Use Bill that gives more freedom to farmers to choose their own crops.

Sources in the rural development ministry indicated that on the basis of this recommendation, the government is likely to constitute a commission to go into the entire land use pattern and thereafter authorise local bodies to regulate land use.

Paddy cultivation would be insisted upon only in fields suitable for raising two crops.

And through an amendment of Land Reforms Act, cashew, medicinal plants and vanilla are likely to be brought under the definition of plantations eligible for exemption from land ceilings.