With the realty sector reeling from the shock of the pandemic, the government’s revenue sources dependent on the sector have also started drying up. The stamps and registration department, which collects a percentage as stamp fee for registration of properties and is one of the top revenue contributors, is struggling to meet targets.
Department officials say that only 6,000 properties were registered in Visakhapatnam district in May and June, against 10,000 properties registered during the corresponding period last year. While the government had set a target of Rs 824 crore for the 2019-20 fiscal, only Rs 525 crore could be generated by last week of March.
K Manmadha Rao, district registrar, said the government has set a target of Rs 600 crore for the 2020-21 fiscal. Earlier, before the lockdown, the department used to earn at least Rs 2.25 crore a day by processing over 200 documents, he said, adding: “In some days in May and June, we still earned Rs 1.25 crore on some days. But now, it’s come down further, to around Rs 60 lakh per day.”
However, the department hopes that it will be able to recover most of the amount once Vizag city becomes the executive capital. Officials said only older agreements, those that came to the department before the outbreak, are being processed at the moment and they aren’t receiving many new registrations now.
The Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing curbs shut down over 2,000 housing projects in Andhra Pradesh. The projects are still stalled due to a shortage of labour and other issues. Moreover, there isn’t a great deal of enthusiasm among prospective property buyers at the moment.