Punjab CM thanks governor for giving assent to 3 bills passed by state assembly in Nov

The Indian Stamp Punjab Amendment Bill, 2023 paves the way for levying two per cent stamp duty on the transfer of property through general power of attorney.To save stamp duty levied on sale deeds, often properties are sold through power of attorney which can be revoked at any time and its legal recognition in any manner is not equivalent to a sale deed, said an official release.Thus apart from huge loss of revenue to the Punjab government, there are also many types of legal hurdles in this process.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann Sunday said Governor Banwarilal Purohit has given his assent to the three bills passed by the state assembly in November last year.

Sharing this information on X, Mann thanked Purohit for approving the bills -- the Transfer of Property (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Registration (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023.

These three bills were passed on November 29 last year during the two-day session of the Punjab Assembly.

''Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit has approved 3 bills passed by the Punjab Legislative Assembly. 1. The Registration (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023. 2. The Transfer of Property (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023. 3. The Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023,'' Mann posted on X.

While thanking the governor, Mann said he expects that other ''pro-Punjab'' bills will also be approved soon.

Last month, the governor had given his assent to the Punjab Vigilance Commission (Repeal) Bill, 2022, which is aimed to dissolve the state vigilance commission.

Purohit has reserved three key bills -- the Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Punjab Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill, 2023 -- for the consideration of the President.

The AAP government and the Raj Bhavan had been at loggerheads in the past over several issues. The Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023 paves the way for levying two per cent stamp duty on the transfer of property through general power of attorney.

To save stamp duty levied on sale deeds, often properties are sold through power of attorney which can be revoked at any time and its legal recognition in any manner is not equivalent to a sale deed, said an official release.

''Thus apart from huge loss of revenue to the Punjab government, there are also many types of legal hurdles in this process. In order to prevent this practice, it is proposed to impose 2 per cent stamp duty on power of attorneys issued out of family relationship through the proposed amendment,'' it said.

The Transfer of Property (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023 pertains to levying 0.25 registration fee on equitable mortgage loans while the Registration (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023 aims at making sales certificate a compulsory registrable document.

“The Registration (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023 was necessary as whenever a property is sold in a public auction by a revenue officer or by a civil court, a sale certificate is issued by that officer on which 3 per cent stamp duty is levied. But this sale certificate is not registerable as per existing law, so generally neither stamp duty is paid on such a sale certificate nor it is registered. ''Apart from being a violation of the law, the government also loses stamp duty of crores of rupees in this process. Therefore, the bill makes this document a compulsory registrable document, so that the Punjab government can get due stamp duty on it,'' the release said.

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