KARACHI, Oct 24: The Sindh Board of Revenue (BoR) raised over Rs1.1 billion revenue from stamp duty and property transactions fee during the first quarter July-Sept 2008-09 compared to over Rs1 billion in the same quarter last year.

Meanwhile, the board has sent a proposal to the chief minister for upward revision of property valuation table, which would further increase the cost of registration of property transactions. The request for revision of the table has been received from the federal government.

According to the figures released by the board, stamp duty revenue rose to Rs992 million in the current quarter from Rs955 million last year, an increase of Rs37 million.

Similarly, revenue from registration of property fee rose to Rs170 million in the quarter compared to Rs130 million in the same quarter last year.

Stamp duty and registration of property transactions contribute about Rs6.5 billion annually, which is equal to the revenue generated from the infrastructure cess on imports.

There is 3 per cent stamp duty and one per cent fee for registration of property deals in addition to 2 per cent CVT and one per cent town tax.

SBR Member Iqbal Ahmed Bablani talking to Dawn on revenue performance said that stamp duty and registration of sale deeds wing recovered Rs100 million arrears of stamp duty outstanding with major organisations.

He suggested to the ministry of finance to fix some incentives for the stamp duty inspectors recovering millions of rupees dues from various organisations.

He said that the revenue collection registered a negative growth in August, which was due to Ramazan and Eid holidays. “The collection is likely to fall further in Zil Hajj and Muharram as people avoid making property deals in these months.

Meanwhile, sources in the department revealed that the national carrier PIA owed millions of rupees to the government on account of paisa 50 stamp duty charged on every international ticket and paisa 25 on domestic tickets.

The federal levy of CVT on sale deeds at the rate of 2 per cent has heavily marred the Sindh’s revenue collection of stamp duty and property transaction.

The provincial government is resisting pressure from the federal government to revise upward property valuation table, which provides base for calculating the CVT.

The sources in the SBR feel that increase in valuation of property rates will further discourage the owners to conclude formal property deals.

The table was revised in 2006 at a time when there was a boom in property market which provided some justification for increase in rates.