At Dholera, 95km from Ahmedabad city, registration of sale deeds for land are breaking records after a two year lull during the Covid pandemic.
Compared to 2014, stamp duty income in 2022 has risen almost five times according to the Dholera sub-registrar’s office, with a surge in registrations in 2021 and 2022.
Since 2014, some 15,000 sale deed documents have been registered, bringing in revenue of Rs 81 crore. Rs 30 crore of this has come in the last two years. A large part of Dholera taluka, almost 920 sq km, is under the Special Investment Region (SIR) Act of 2009.
Revenue officials say between 2010 and 2014, the taluka witnessed 400 to 500 sale deeds a year, rising to 742 in 2014. Since then there has been no looking back. In 2015, the sub-registrar’s office registered 1,926 sale deeds and collected Rs 6.68 crore in stamp duty and Rs 1.08 crore in registration fees.
In 2020, the number of sale deeds decreased due to the Covid pandemic to about 1,158, bringing in Rs 4.73 crore in stamp duty.
However, in the last two years, Dholera has been witnessing a boom. In 2021, a record-breaking 2,484 sale deeds were registered netting the government Rs 11.39 crore in stamp duty and Rs 2.19 crore in registration fees. In 2022 till July, there have been 2,162 sale deeds registered for Rs 14 crore in stamp duty and Rs 2.75 crore in registration fees.
According to sources in the revenue department, the state government had set the jantri rates in 2011 and there has been no revision since then. Farmland that was acquired for the Dholera SIR was bought at higher commercial rates, while for the rest of Dholera taluka lower jantri rates remain.
“As the jantri rates are low, it is tough to estimate the market value of the land sales transacted. Till July 2022, some 2,162 sale deeds were registered and it is estimated that the deals have been worth around Rs 500 crore,” said a senior Ahmedabad district collectorate official.