BELAGAVI: Although it has led to a decline in govt revenue, e-khatas, now mandatory, have helped curb fraudulent activity in property registration, revenue minister Krishna Byre Gowda told the legislative council Wednesday.
While defending the implementation of the system, Byre Gowda stressed its role in preventing fake property registrations. “The e-khata system will reduce fraudulent practices in the real estate sector,” he said while suggesting the dip in govt revenue would be “short-term”. “But these changes are necessary to combat the rampant issue of illegal property registrations.”
The minister said millions of properties in the state lacked valid khatas due to submission of fake documents during registration. “In Bengaluru, 10-15 lakh properties do not have valid khatas. In gram panchayat limits, as per documents available, 90 lakh properties lack khatas,” he said. “In municipality limits, at least 30 lakh property owners face the same situation. This problem arose due to fake physical khatas and identity cards submitted during registration. Middlemen were charging Rs 45,000 to Rs 50,000 for these illegal registrations.”
On growing complaints of illegal registrations in the past, Byre Gowda said identifying all cases would be impractical. “Millions of illegal registrations have occurred. It’s not feasible to track them all. But we’ve implemented measures to prevent these practices going forward,” he said. He stressed the need for local bodies to act against illegal transactions that had already taken place.
He also revealed progress of the e-khata system, acknowledging initial difficulties. “When the system was first introduced in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, we faced significant challenges. Initially, we received 15,000 applications daily but could process only 200-300. Now, we are handling 2,000 applications a day and have the capacity to process 3,000 e-khatas. In just 45 days, we’ve managed to stabilise the system,” he said.
On the drop in revenue, he said: “Until the end of Oct, stamps and registration revenues grew by 21%. From April to Oct, Rs 15,145 crore was generated, compared to Rs 12,488 crore during the same period last year. In Sept, the department collected Rs 2,104 crore, but this dropped to Rs 1,889 crore in Oct, and fell further to Rs 1,265 crore in Nov.”
But he was optimistic that revenue will rise. “There is a drop in revenue generation, but this is because we are now focusing on legal registrations. The govt is earning revenue from legitimate sources. We expect to achieve a 20% growth rate by the end of the financial year,” Byre Gowda said.
Source Homevior.in
