To avoid paying more under the new tax regime, citizens scrambled to get land registered before July 1
The department received 42,364 documents for registration of property till June 30. Representation Pic/ AFP
Rs 949 crore -- that's how much the Department of Registration and Stamp Duty has collected over four days since June 27 with citizens queuing up (in pic) to get properties registered before GST came into effect.
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And with that the department has already achieved one-fourth of the target it has set for itself for this fiscal. As many as 42,364 documents arrived at the department for registration between June 27 and June 30.
The mad rush
As per figures made available by the department, over R381 crore has been collected towards property registration from Mumbai region, and more than R214 crore from Pune region.
State Inspector General of Registration and Stamps Anil Kawade said, "There was nothing [new done] from our side, no increase or setting of deadlines, and yet, in four days, we received double the registration amount than we had expected in the period.
When our officials interacted with some citizens, we realized that everyone was afraid of having to shell out more after GST implementation."
"The financial year starts from April; so, people have time till March 2018 to register their properties. But this year has been different. Our target this year is R31,000 crore; in three months alone, we have reached the 'thousand-crore' bracket, and in four days, we netted R949 crore," he added.
Long hours
Deputy Inspector General Chintaman Bhurkunde said, "Usually, from Mumbai region, we collect an average of R32 crore a day, but those four days got us R381 crore; i.e. nearly R95 crore a day.
Similarly, Pune region's average day collection has been R8.5 crore, but this time it was R53 crore a day over those four days."
"Our office has always shut by 6 pm, but those four days, everyone was working till 11 pm; on June 30, we were at our desks till midnight."
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