Jamshedpur, June 18: Registry offices are witnessing a boom time in registration of apartments after the government reduced stamp duty from 16.5 per cent to 5 per cent.

The new stamp duty was implemented from June 1 following a government notification.

More than 40 apartment owners of the city have approached the district registry office in the past two weeks to get their flats registered, said sources in the district registry office.

“It is a welcome decision. We were making enquiries at Calcutta to get our flat registered. But since the state government has reduced the stamp duty, we will get the registration done here,” said Utpal Chatterjee, a flat owner at Renuka Apartments, Sonari.

District registry officer Sahdev Mehra said flat registration has picked up after the reduction in stamp duty. “Besides application for registration, every day we receive enquiries from apartment owners based at various parts of the city. They come to us to get their flats registered,” he said.

After going through the records at the district registry office, it was found that no flat had been registered in the past three years. This was apparently due to the high stamp duty. Earlier, apartment owners had to pay 16 per cent registration fee, including 8.5 per cent stamp duty, 2 per cent municipal duty and the rest as regional development authority charge.

Revenue department officials said, according to the feedback received from registry offices of Dhanbad, Bokaro, Ranchi, Koderma and Hazaribagh, registration of flats have picked up after the reduction in stamp duty in those areas as well.

“According to reports, people have been submitting their applications for registration in large numbers,” said a senior revenue department official. The officials said, earlier, people used to get their land registered in Calcutta due to the heavy stamp duty here and the government lost a large amount of revenue due to this.

“We cannot stop it because of a ruling of the Centre, which stipulated that land can be registered in the metros as well,” an official of the state urban development department said.

According to officials, reduction in the stamp duty would tempt flat owners to get their flats registered and, in turn, increase the government’s revenue earning.

Besides, it will also stop under-valuation of flats during registration, which has been the case earlier, said officials of the urban development department.