news details |
|
|
| Patwaris encourage oral gifts to evade stamp duty | | State loses Crores | | Jehangir Rashid
SRINAGAR, Aug 26: Officials of Revenue department continue to cause huge losses to the state ex-chequer by resorting to 'un-fair', 'un-ethical' and 'illegal' practices while carrying out the mutation in different districts of Kashmir valley. Rough estimates put the amount of losses on this count to crores.
Sources told Early Times that Patwaris discharging their duties in Kashmir valley carry out the oral gift deed conveniently without checking ifs and buts in the process. The Patwaris usually strike a deal with the clients and demand a hefty sum in lieu of oral gift deeds carried out by them in their favour.
"The Government has clearly set out rules that the people who intend to buy some property in form of land have to pay stamp duty towards the State Government. The papers of sale and purchase have to be registered in the court and for this the buyers have to pay stamp duty towards the Government," said the sources.
The sources said that quite contrary to governed rules and regulations the Patwaris carry out mutation of the land without the registration of necessary documents in the court. They under a deal carry out this whole process while demanding huge sum from the clients and thus cause huge loss to the state ex-chequer.
"A buyer has to pay eight percent of stamp duty on a plot of land and the money goes to the state ex-chequer. One can easily understand the amount of revenue generated by this process and this could have been used for various developmental activities. Since the value of land has increased over the past few years, the Government could have earned crores as stamp duty, but surprisingly that has not happened so far," said the sources.
The oral gift deed as executed by the Patwaris is notarized and it is not registered in the court. In some of the cases the Patwaris encourage the people to save the payment of stamp duty by executing the oral gift deed. This has been going on for months now and there seems to be no end to whole phenomenon.
"State Vigilance Organization (SVO) authorities have already detected some fraud cases in this regard. They have issued directions to the concerned officials to desist from this practice but the directions have been kept in backburner. As there is no monitoring the revenue officials continue with their practice. There is a need to put blanket ban on such deals so that the wrongs are stopped once for all," said the sources.
The sources said that SVO needs to toughen its stand against the revenue officials in this regard so that strict financial discipline is enforced. The sources said that Patwaris alone cannot be blamed for this 'illegal' since the other officers too are a part of this game with benefits for all in game.
"There are different tiers in the revenue department and benefits of oral gift deeds accrue to all these officials. It is quite surprising that higher ups of the revenue department have failed to take action against their officials despite knowing all the facts," said the sources. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
