The sale and purchase of properties in south Delhi is likely to get more expensive as South Delhi Municipal Corporation has approved a proposal to increase the rate of duty on transfer of property from this financial year.
The proposal was approved in a standing committee meeting on Friday and will be placed before the house for final approval soon. Transfer duty is levied by municipalities on transfer of immovable properties within its limit. It is calculated on the registered sale value of property in addition to stamp duty.
At present, the transfer duty is 3% of the property is transferred in the name of men and 2% for women. Now, the civic agency has approved a rate of 3% for women and 4% for men. That means for a property costing Rs 1 crore, there will be a difference of Rs 1 lakh in the duty amount.
Earlier, SDMC charged a uniform rate of 5%, but in 2011-12 the rates were reduced on the directions of the then Delhi government. “Now the financial aid from the government has reduced drastically and SDMC is going through severe financial crisis. Therefore, it has been proposed to increase the transfer duty by 1%,” stated the proposal.
The civic body attempted to increase the transfer duty rates last year as well, but the plan was rejected by the standing committee in the wake of assembly elections scheduled in Delhi. However, it was successful in increasing the education cess on all properties by 1% (of calculated property tax amount).
The increase of transfer duty will add a revenue of Rs 25 crore annually, said an SDMC official. “Transfer duty is the biggest source of revenue for corporations. In the financial year (2019-20), SDMC earned Rs 721 crores from transfer duty, Rs 630 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 518 crore in 2017-18,” said an SDMC official.