KARACHI, Feb 1: The Board of Revenue, Sindh, has computerised registration of property sale deeds and payment of stamp duty to ensure transparency in transactions.

The automation will help applicants know the status of their sale deeds through website. It will also display stamp duty rates for different types of documents as well as valuation rates fixed for residential, commercial and agriculture property in urban and rural areas.

Giving details of the automation, Gul Hasan Chandio, chief inspector of stamps, told Dawn on Friday that in the second phase registration and stamp duty offices in all districts would be linked with the mainframe computer enabling officials to get daily report of registration of sale deeds and payment of stamp duty.

Meanwhile, to facilitate bulk payment of stamps duty the department has allowed major clients, including banks, brokerage firms, contractors and mobile phone companies, to deposit duty in National Bank of Pakistan.

To avail the facility, these entities would be required to obtain a challan of the specified amount from the stamp duty wing of the department.

With the modernisation of processing of sale deeds the stamp wing hopes to increase its revenue manifold provided the present uncertainty ends and law and order situation is improved.

The stamp wing of the Board of Revenue collected Rs1970.5 million from sales of stamps during first six months (July-Dec) of 2007-08 compared to Rs1748.3 million during the same period last year, registering an increase in revenue of Rs222.2 million.

The highest collection of Rs385.9 million was made in August 2007 followed by Rs384.7 million in November, Rs306.3m in July and Rs299.7 million in December, Rs299.1 million in September and Rs294.6 million in October.

The stamp wing has repeatedly requested the home ministry to provide guards at the central stamp office in the City Courts where there is always a ready stock of stamps worth Rs6 to 7 billion but to no avail, putting the government’s valuable cash assets at risk.

In addition, the condition of central stamp office building has become depilated and concrete pieces frequently fall from the roof, which might injure the buyers of stamps. The office, which has a daily sale of stamps worth Rs10 million needs urgent repairs, Mr Chandio suggested.

United Defence Clifton Estate Agents Association President Raja Mazhar has welcomed the move for automation of sale deeds registration, but said there was an urgent need to prepare a database of urban properties and plots to check illegal transfers and bogus registration.

There is a common practice that properties and plots belonging to owners at overseas or in other cities are transferred illegally and registered through new files prepared in collaboration with the Karachi Building Control Authority.

The compilation of database of real estate units would minimise litigation in courts which are presently over-burdened with such cases. This has led to the idea presently being discussed to set up separate building courts to deal with property cases.