PATNA: After market-based evaluation and revision of prices of chunks of land, both urban and rural, was introduced five years ago in Bihar, the registration department has been augmenting the state’s coffers in arithmetical progression. As a matter of fact, the revenue netted by the registration department in the last fiscal has broken all previous records.
According to registration minister Vijendra Prasad Yadav, the revenue yield of his department has increased by around 120 per cent since the 2005-06 fiscal. “The department has finally shown its potential. It is among the three major revenue yielding departments of the state after commercial taxes and excise departments,” he said.
The revenue yield of the department was Rs 566.36 crore in 2005-06, which increased to Rs 1,246.44 crore in 2010-11 — an increase by 120 per cent. The revenue returns of the department were Rs 540.37 crore in 2006-07, Rs 694.75 crore in 2007-08, Rs 770.65 crore in 2008-09, and Rs 1,148 crore in 2009-10.
Yadav said that an amendment to the Bihar Stamp Duty Act, 1995, which was done in 2006, spurred the growth of the sector that involves transfer of land, both urban and rural, through sale deeds. According to the new provisions, the average minimum price of a chunk of rural land is fixed by the district deputy registrar every second year taking into account the market prices of land in its vicinity, and that of urban land every year.
In keeping with the same, the payable stamp duty on general transfer of land through sale and purchase also gets revised on the higher side, which, in turn, has been yielding revenue to the state’s coffers substantially.
“Besides, we have toned up the functioning of the department through computerization. At present, all the registration offices in the districts are fully computerized,” Yadav said, adding that the department’s computerization programme has already entered the second phase, as digitalization of documents has been started.