Revenue from the Registration and Stamps department continues to be on the upswing since the resumption of the registration of non-agricultural properties from May 31.
The department had processed 27,837 documents since resumption till Monday reporting revenue of ₹220.09 crore in the 12 working days, at an average of over ₹16 crore a day. Registration of non-agricultural properties which started on a sedate note on May 31 with ₹74 lakh revenue through 578 documents grew subsequently reporting more than ₹20 crore revenue a day several days since the resumption of the process.
And, the number of registrations has been on the rise since the easing of restrictions allowing functioning of the offices of sub-registrars till 5 pm as in the past rather than the restricted timings during which they were allowed to function. The department reported revenue of more than ₹20 crore on seven of the 12 days during which it functioned with a high of ₹28.44 crore on June 5 through processing of 899 documents.
Though registrations picked up significantly since the resumption of the process, they could not be taken up on full scale as the offices of the sub-registrars and district registrars are allowed to open for four hours day from 9 am to 1 pm since May 31. This limited the scope for number of transactions allowing only 24 a day in the offices where there is single sub-registrar and 48 in the offices where there are two sub-registrars.
Coupled with this were three public holidays on account of two Sundays and a second Saturday while transactions were disrupted for two more days on account of technical glitches. The central server of the department placed at the State Data Centre faced technical problems for two days slowed down the registration process.
Registrations were partly affected in some areas including key areas surrounding the GHMC area from where the bulk of the revenue is expected to be generated. Officials told The Hindu that the technical glitches resulted in reduction of the number of transactions and thereby, the revenue for two days. “The issue is technical and it is not related to the number of documents being processed. It has been resolved completely now,” the official said.
It may be recalled that the government had set a stiff target of ₹12,000 crore revenue through Registrations and Stamps during the current financial year, averaging about ₹1,000 crore a month and the progress was impressive in April when it reported revenue in excess of ₹700 crore. The process however suffered setback after the lockdown imposed since May 12.