Audit: Haryana loses Rs 38 cr on developer-landowner pacts

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Chandigarh, July 3

A draft audit report has pointed out that Haryana lost out on stamp duty and registration fee of Rs 38 crore as builders evaded collaboration agreements with landowners and in 76 cases, sub-registrars (SRs) undervalued the collaborated land.

As per the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas (HDRUA) Act, 1975, a collaboration agreement with the owner empowers a developer to apply for a licence and complete the formalities required on behalf of such owner to develop a colony. Director General (DG) Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD) prescribed in January 2011 that no licence application in the future would be entertained unless there was a registered collaboration agreement.

Sub-registrars undervalued land

• The audit scrutinised records of 43 sub-registrars (SRs) of six districts for 2019-22 and noticed that though collaboration agreements were registered by the developers, the SRs had undervalued the collaborated land in 76 cases, resulting in loss of stamp duty and registration fee

On scrutinising the records of licences, it came out that seven developers evaded collaboration agreements “which tantamounted to a defective title in favour of their authority to be developers”, said the audit. These developers included KPDK Buildtech Pvt Ltd, 3B Developers Pvt Ltd, Revital Reality Pvt Ltd, Golf Link Project Pvt Ltd, Sard Metal Pvt Ltd, GRJ Distributors and Developers Pvt Ltd and Adore Homes LLP.

The audit, carried out by Principal Accountant General, observed that no interlinked mechanism had been evolved by the Revenue Department and the TCPD to “verify that the collaboration agreements be registered or stamped properly in the sub-registrar offices before the grant of the licences or the approval for the change of beneficial interest according to the TCPD policy of February 2015”.

“Further, the office of the DTP should have impounded the improperly stamped collaboration agreements in contravention of provisions of Section 33 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. In the absence of any defined mechanism, the state had suffered a loss of stamp duty of Rs13.99 crore,” added the audit report.

The audit scrutinised records of 43 sub-registrars (SRs) of six districts for 2019-22 and noticed that though collaboration agreements were registered by the developers, the SRs had undervalued the collaborated land in 76, resulting in the loss of stamp duty and registration fee.

In 11 cases, the land was already licenced/CLU land. The SR assessed the land at agriculture rates instead of assessment with the application of prescribed three times, four times and five times of agriculture rates for plotted, group housing, and commercial licenses respectively, causing a loss of Rs 8.07 crore.