Maharashtra: Government reduces stamp duty to boost real estate sector
Mrunal Jadhav
Pune, August 27, 2020: The Maharashtra government has announced a cut in stamp duty in order to boost the real estate sector. It has temporarily slashed the stamp duty on sale and purchase documents by 3 percent effective from September 1 to December 31. The state government has further decided to continue the reduction by 2 percent from January 1 to March 31, 2021. This decision is likely to bring relief to home buyers and can boost the sale of houses.
The representatives of the builder’s association had put forth their demand to Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat to reduce the stamp duty, as due to Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) outbreak the financial situation of many people has been unstable. On Wednesday in a meeting, Thorat had presented the proposal before the registration department to reduce the stamp duty and it got accepted aiming to help to give a boost to the ailing construction sector.
There are about 27 register offices in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. Daily more than 800 files are registered and 28,000 to 30,000 files are registered in a year in the city. During the COVID-19 situation, the stamp duty registration has declined, therefore it is expected that reduction in the stamp duty will increase the registrations of people buying homes.
“The decision taken by the state government is very good and positive. It will give some boost to the economy during the Corona period. The decision seems to be fulfilling the long-awaited demand of the developers. It will be a great relief to the customers and especially encouraging for small home buyers. With this decision, if the central government also increases the income tax relief, the overall economy will get more momentum,” said CREDAI national president Satish Magar.
Sujay Kalele, founder, TRU Realty, said, “This is a big booster for the real estate industry as it lowers the cost of acquisition of the property for the customers. This coupled with lower interest rates should kick start the sales cycle for the industry.”
Rohit Gera, Managing Director, Gera Developments Pvt Ltd, added, “The proactive move by the Government of Maharashtra to reduce stamp duty is most welcome. This will help the struggling real estate sector tremendously. The 2 tiered reduction will help incentivise home buyers to purchase sooner than later.”
