Glitches with digital payments hit work in sub-registrar offices in Karnataka

The Department of Stamps has banned transactions through demand drafts and cash receipts

While the Department of Stamps and Registration recently mandated that all transactions in sub-registrar’s offices have to be done through digital payments and bank transfers, the new system’s teething troubles have slowed down services.

The department has banned transactions through demand drafts (DDs) and cash receipts.

However, a week after the new system is put in place, officials in the sub-registrar offices say the system is ridden with much confusion and several glitches.

Speaking to DH, a sub-registrar in Bengaluru explained, “Take for instance, property registration. Once you have entered your details and paid the money online, in case you have made any error in the information provided, your registration will not be complete and you have to wait for several days for refund of the money. District registrars are having a tough time dealing with such requests.”

The other problem is that the public have to avail of the services in the same office - mentioned in the K-2 challan, while earlier they could go to any office in a particular zone, the sub-registrar added.

A customer relations executive of a prominent real estate development company in Bengaluru concurred. “In the absence of guidance from banks or sub-registrar office, customers are asking builders for help to fill out forms.”

Officials in the stamps and registration department said the rest of the state, save for Bengaluru, had already adopted the K-2 (treasury) challan system long ago. Nonetheless, the absence of cash transactions even for small services, has hit people hard in rural areas.

One official at a sub-registrar office in Srirangapatna said, “People have to go to a cyber centre, get the form printed, go to a bank, make the payment and get an authorisation from the bank. The sub-registrar office will complete the process only after this. Even if there is a minute error, they have to run back to the bank to get it rectified. Farmers are spending hours together running between bank and sub-registrar offices.”

However, K P Mohan Raj, Inspector-General of Registration and Commissioner of Stamps, was optimistic about the government’s move and said this would eventually streamline financial transactions. He said the government brought in the system to stop government money being mishandled.