Online payment for property registrations made compulsory from today

Inspectorate General of Registration and Stamps S Chockalingam on Sunday said this has been introduced to check the large scale fraudulent transactions. “People in the area can use netbanking facility and make the payment online for the 14 banks listed or pay over the counter at the Bank of Maharashtra,State Bank of India or the IDBI branches,’’ he said.

Even as the process was operational in the city as an option,it has now been compulsory with the city office registering another fraudulent case using the franking system. This would enable a person to sit at home and make the payment online without having to do the rounds of multiple offices or then visit the authorised banks for the payment.

This is a part of an initiative to overhaul the stamp duty system and weed out malpractices. For doing it from home,one needs to just visit the government website https://gras.mahakosh.gov.in or then visit the authorised bank and fill up a form with the property transaction details before making the stamp duty payment.

The details will be fed into an online database by a bank officer,who will then issue the customer an Electronic Secure Bank and Treasury Receipt (eSBTR),a digital receipt of the payment. The eSBTR will look like an old stamp paper and also work as one. But the difference is that the e-receipt will be more secure than traditional stamp papers,which are vulnerable to forging. The stationery for the receipt,too,will be catalogued on the database,which will help officials concerned track them. Citizens can also pay registration fees through the eSBTR system.

However,the IGR has started with transactions where stamp duty will be Rs 5,000 and more and for the amounts below that will still follow the conventional system. IGR officials stated that a large segment of leave and license agreements,which amount up to Rs 3,000,will not come in this sector and they hope to start the same for this section too.

The officials added that the overall security mechanism of stamp papers has improved post the Telgi scam,but the mode is still vulnerable to fraudulent practices. The absence of a central database makes it difficult to verify a stamp paper’s genuineness. Franking and e-stamping gained prominence,but they are vulnerable to duplication,imitation,and hacking than old stamp papers.

“The city office is the first to go and slowly all offices in the district will have the same and it will help phase out stamp papers and even franking and e-stamping,’’ said an IGR official.

The new system will also reduce administrative costs and unlike other models,where commissions are offered to vendors,banks will be paid a fixed Rs 150 per transaction.