Public can register properties on Saturdays too: Minister P Moorthy

CHENNAI:  Steps will be taken to cancel fraudulent registrations and a committee will be constituted to rationalise guideline values, P Moorthy, the Minister for Commercial Taxes and Registration, announced in Assembly on Thursday. Further, for the convenience of office-goers, registrations will be undertaken on Saturday as well. He added the Chennai and Madurai registration zones will be bifurcated and a new registration district will be created at Tambaram. 

The minister listed a slew of his department’s initiatives in his reply to the debate on the demand for the grants to his department. The department has planned to implement ‘My Bill-My Rights’ scheme to create awareness among consumers to receive a receipt for every purchase. It will also be allocating Rs 1.66 crore to provide cash rewards to whistleblowers, who tip off the department about possible tax evasion. Meanwhile, the Commercial Tax department’s call centre will be strengthened and a separate audit team will be formed to monitor tax generation. 

A call centre will be set up in Chennai and Coimbatore on a trial basis at a cost of Rs 1 crore to provide integrated services of the Registration department. To improve the basic infrastructures of registration offices, Rs 50 lakh will be spent on infrastructure facilities at two sub-registrar offices, and a unified call centre will be established at a cost of Rs 50 lakh to address the grievances of the general public. 

It will also be installing a software, ‘Simplified and Transparent Administration of Registration’ (STAR), to prevent the registration of government lands, waterbodies, HR&CE lands and others. A Bill has been passed to amend the provisions of the Registration Act, 1908 to allow for cancellation of documents if found to have been registered through fraud, impersonation etc. The Bill has been sent to the Government of India to obtain the assent of the President.