Stamps dept under scanner over non-levy of duty

The stamps and registration department has come under the scanner of the  Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which has come across stamp duty to the tune of Rs 12.03 crore not being levied on the transfer of commercial airline division of Kingfisher Airlines to Deccan Aviation. 

According to the CAG report (revenue sector) tabled in the Assembly, two distinct transactions (one pertaining to the transfer of the commercial airlines division of Kingfisher to Deccan Aviation and the other pertaining to merger of charter service undertaking of Deccan Aviation with Deccan Charters) were shown as one.

The report points out that the district registrar of Gandhinagar levied a stamp duty of Rs 48.33 lakh in the first transaction and failed to levy stamp duty on the transaction between Kingfisher Airlines and Deccan Aviation. The stamp duty payable on the transaction was Rs 12.03 crore.

Audit observation

The report states that when auditors pointed out the discrepancy, the department accepted the audit observation. However, the department worked out the stamp duty on the face value of Kingfisher share (that is Rs 10 per share) and levied stamp duty of Rs 1.59 crore, but not on the market value of the share.

The market value of the share as per Bombay Stock Exchange index at the time of executing the transaction was Rs 124. The discrepancy was reported to the government in July 2013, but there has been no reply so far, the report states.

In all, during the audit of records maintained by the State resource mobilisation departments including commercial taxes, excise, motor vehicles, stamps and registration in 2012-13, it found underassessment, non-levy of taxes and other irregularities amounting to Rs 345 crore.

The cases of deficiencies were found in 93,188 cases in various departments. However, during the course of the year, the departments accepted the underassessment and deficiencies of Rs 29.52 crore and recovered Rs 10.95 crore in 459 cases at the instance of the audit.