Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das hit a sixer on his birthday on May 3 by announcing Rs1 stamp duty and registration fee on property for women all across the state including the urban areas, the BJP stronghold! Babus are working overtime for early Cabinet seal on the announcement and to implement the new policy by June end!
While women are obviously impressed by the announcement that does not leave any space for discrimination on the ground of location or price of the property, the Opposition too is forced to welcome the social reformist move bound to empower women, though calling it 'populist'!
Women have been getting a 10 per cent discount in the prevailing 7 per cent Stamp Duty and Registration Fee on properties so far! Come July, women would have to pay just Rs1 to register any property in their name! The move is bound to incur heavy revenue losses to the state exchequer, but Das and his team are already on the job to compensate the losses!
It has decided to impose extra registration charges from people buying their second four-wheelers and charge surplus taxes on luxury cars! While the move will help curb pollution, it will also compensate some revenue loss incurred to the state exchequer in initiating the social reform! Besides, the State is also trying to plug the leakages in tax collection, officials said!
If Bihar can survive by implementing prohibition, why cannot Jharkhand initiate any financial benefit for women that will directly benefit the women and empower them at the cost of a few croresIJ Asks former chief secretary and ex-chief state women’s commission and Jharkhand Academic Council lakshmi Singh.
No wonder Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had claimed in a public meeting last December that if the State Government is losing Rs5,000 crore annually due to the prohibition, the people of Bihar were saving Rs10,000 crore annually!
“Women will be encouraged to buy property now. Taxation is basically aimed at development, which in turn can happen through social reforms. Why not directly do some social reforms,” Singh says. “Most of the property is bought and sold by men so the revenue impact would not be too high, but it would certainly boost people to register their properties in the name of a female family member,” she adds.
Singh suggests the losses can be covered by introducing new taxes and collecting existing taxes more seriously and by plugging the leakages. There are many ways for the Government, she added.
Sources said the babus were divided over introducing the policy in the announced format. A section wanted the waiver only in rural areas, but Das overruled realizing it would impact BJP's stronghold urban vote bank. Seeing Das is against discriminating on the ground of location, some officials suggested putting a cap of maximum price of Rs1 crore of property for availing the waiver, but that too was turned down, sources said.
Jharkhand's main opposition party, JMM spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya welcomes the move though calling it a populist measure. "There are some technical issues, Otherwise it's good. Majority of properties are purchased through bank loans. Mostly men are in service and business and eligible for bank loans. How would women get the properties registered in their names when the bank loans would be in the name of the menIJ Ultimately, the policy would not benefit the women, Bhattacharya said. “The point I raised should also be looked into,” he added.
But then State level Bankers’ Committee spokesperson Anmol said that under the prevailing system even if only the man is eligible for bank loan, he can keep his wife as a co-borrower and then the property can be registered in his wife's name. “A borrower of home loan has a source of income, but the spouse with no income can also become a co-borrower,” he said.
Jharkhand Congress chief and lohardaga MlA Sukhdev Bhagat said the move was good and would certainly empower women, but two important aspects must be considered before the final implementation.
“Maximum tribal land alienation in and around the cities have been done in the name of tribal women. The Government needs to ensure the policy is not misused in further land alienation especially of tribals. Besides, the Government needs to stop the malpractices at the Registry offices,” he said.
Bhagat believes there has been no homework by the government before making the announcement. “There should have been a proper study and planning. No provision has been made in the budget to compensate the losses,” he said. Despite all criticism, he welcomed the move since it was aimed at social reforms. But, he added the tribal community was already very apprehensive in Jharkhand and the move will further enhance their fear of land alienation in the name of women!
Ranchi Sub-Registrar Rahul Kumar Chaubey expects the percentage of registration of properties in the name of women shooting up to 75-80 per cent once the notification is issued. Welcoming the move, he said even at present almost 50 to 60 per cent registries are by women. He said at present stamp duty accounts for 4 per cent, but they charge only 3.6 per cent from women and registration fee is 3 per cent, but women get a discount of 10 per cent there as well and pay just 2.7 per cent.