Transfer duty may go up for properties over Rs 25 lakh in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Property prices in the city are likely to go up soon as Delhi government has
approved Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) proposal to increase the transfer fee on the sale of
properties by 1% point. The raise will be applicable to all properties valuing over Rs 25 lakh. “We have approved the proposal forwarded by MCD and sent back the file to it,” said a government official. While an MCD official said the civic body was yet to receive the file, he also pointed out that a
gazette notification would also be required to be issued by Delhi government and the sub-registrars would have to be informed by their divisional commissioners before the change could be implemented.

The transfer duty is calculated on the registered sale value of a property and charged in addition to the
stamp duty. The proposal sent to Delhi government included increasing MCD’s share in the transfer duty
from the existing 3% to 4% in case of men buyers and from 2% to 3% for women. Last year, the proposal
was approved by the special officer and the municipal commissioner for the hike and sent to Delhi
government for approval after the unification of the three civic bodies.
“If a property costs around Rs 1 crore, the net increase in the transfer duty will be Rs 1 lakh. However,
there will be no change in the transfer duty for properties with a registered value of less than Rs 25 lakh,”
the official said.

On the need to increase the rate, a civic official said, “We have not made any change in the past one
decade and the corporation has the power to levy up to 5% transfer duty. The duty is among the main
sources of income for MCD. To improve our financial condition post-unification, we need to look for
steps to increase the revenue collection.”
Prior to the unification in May 2022, both the erstwhile south and north corporations attempted to increase the transfer duty, but the proposal remained stuck at the Delhi government level.