Lack of Clarity on Jantri Rates

Ahmedabad: Lots of problems are creating for property buyers and sellers because of lack of clarity on jantri rates. Over 10,000 survey numbers were omitted from revision and not included in the jantri book whereas the jantri rates were last updated in 2011. Jantri rates are utilized to show up at the worth of properties at the hour of their sale.
The sale deeds of properties located in omitted survey numbers are drawn based on the jantri rate of nearest survey number. In absence of guidelines at sub-registrar offices on how to calculate jantri for such properties, often they get undervalued. The audit department then raises a query and demands recovery of stamp duty which runs into lakhs of rupees.
The government has not bothered to declare the jantri rates of the 10,000 survey numbers even after 10 years. In absence of jantri, stamp duty recovery is demanded even after sale deeds are executed.
The disparity in jantri rates is not a new issue. When the government declared jantri rates in 2011, farmerand landowners had opposed it strongly. The reason was that the government had imposed higher jantri than prevalent market value in certain pockets of Ahmedabad city and rural. As a compromise formula, the state government revised the rates by announcing that only 50% of the difference between the old and new jantri rates would be applicable.
For instance, if the old jantri rate was Rs 100 and the new rate was Rs 200 then as per the government formula the applicable jantri would be Rs 150 (half of difference between old and the new rate). Even the compromise formula of the state government led to several protests.
Now, the Deputy Collector’s office is issuing recovery notices in Ahmedabad city and district under Article 68(2) of the Gujarat Stamp Act. The notices give time of seven days to reply and pay the difference in amount raised by the revenue department.
Prakash Shah of Title Clear Association said the jantri rates have not been revised for a decade. More than 50 new TP schemes have been executed and disparity in jantri rates is causing lots of problems.
Ahmedabad Deputy Collector (assessment) Kunjal Shah said, “Notices are issued after audit queries are raised. But I do not have information about the exact number of notices issued.”
Query raised in 2020 for land sold in 2017
A citizen told Mirror that in March 2017 a sale deed was drawn for 7,000 square metre land in Vejalpur sub-registrar office. The audit department pointed out that the stamp duty paid was less and in 2020 we were issued a notice. We were issued the notice again recently. If the government clarifies about the jantri rate then such issues would not crop up. Both officials and citizens would be spared, he said.