Ghaziabad administration detects evasion of stamp duty in land transactions, orders action

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The Ghaziabad district administration has stumbled upon a fraudulent practice of evading stamp duty in the sale and purchase of residential land in urban villages or those with high potential of development in the district by paying lower circle rates fixed for agricultural land. Following the discovery of this fraudulent practice, the district administration has decided to scrutinize all land transactions up to a year old in urban villages, said District Magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey on Friday.

The officer also warned people against resorting to such fraudulent practice of evading the right stamp duty. Pandey said the discovery was made following random scrutiny of two registries of lands in Noor Nagar Colony, in which a duty evasion of over Rs 10 lakh was detected.

The two plots of land in the Noor Nagar, which is located within the Ghaziabad municipal limits, were purchased by Patel Nagar resident Naresh Kumar Singhal and Daya Nand Nagar resident Payal, wife of Devraj respectively, he said.

Pointing out that circle rate for agricultural land is not applicable to plots in areas within nine kilometers of municipal limits, the district magistrate said people also often buy land in areas with high chances of acquisition by government for implementing developmental schemes by paying marginal stamp duty fixed for agricultural land and later take huge compensation from the government on its acquisition.

People selling and purchasing lands in residential areas on the agricultural circle rates and evading stamp duty would be put to task, he said.

“I have also instructed to additional district magistrate (finance and revenue) to monitor sale of such lands which are being sold in villages which have developed as colonies within the municipal limits," he said.

"It has also come to my knowledge that sub registrars also are hand-in-gloves with such buyers and sellers of property, evading stamp duty," he added.

"After investigation of one-year-old registries, action would be initiated against the errant sub registrars and report will be sent to the government for their suspension, he said.