DDA Plans Housing Schemes in Dwarka

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) plans to build new housing projects in L Zone Delhi Dwarka. Work on other residential projects is already on in Jasola, Rohini, Narela, Jahangirpuri, Bakkarwala, Kondli and Kalkaji.

After the poor response to its 2014 affordable housing scheme aimed for the middle class and lower middle class - 10,000 houses were returned by the allot tees - the DDA is planning to come up with a new scheme to resell these flats. The owners had given up the flats, most of them one-bedroom units, as they found the rooms too small, a senior DDA official said. The agency then offered these surrendered flats to those in the waiting list. "But the response wasn't encouraging.  That's why we have decided to announce a new scheme," the official said.

Registration for flats to get simpler

The registration of flats sold by the Delhi Development Authority has always been a time-consuming affair, but now looks set to become simpler and shorter. The practice of getting the Collector of Stamps (CoS) to adjudicate on the quantum of stamp duty on land deeds executed by the capital's land agency will be discontinued from March 15, shortening the process of registration by around a fortnight.

The district magistrate of New Delhi, Sanjay Kumar, has informed Arun Goel, vice-chairman of DDA, that requests for adjudication on DDA's various deals with customers will no longer be entertained at the CoS branch at Vikas Sadan. In his letter, Kumar said only in "cases where the DDA feels that the duty on a particular instrument needs adjudication" should an application may be made to the stamp authority.

Every day, around 150 documents linked to DDA deeds involving flats and commercial buildings reach the Collector of Stamps at Chanakyapuri for adjudication. As a practice, whenever DDA has to execute a deed with an allottee or owner of a flat or commercial space, it mandatorily requires the customer to get the CoS to determine the quantum of stamp or transfer duty. It is only after the adjudication and after the stamp authority collects the duty and stamps the documents that DDA executes the deed and permits registration.

Kumar's letter said adjudication under provisions of the Stamp Act, 1860 was meant to be resorted to when "the instrument is of complex nature and the executants are, bona fide, unable to determine the quantum of stamp duty payable". He pointed out that the instruments routinely executed by DDA with its allottees or owners were mostly standard in nature, and Schedule 1A of the Act clearly defined the formula on how the stamp duty was to be determined. The magistrate thus felt that the mandatory adjudication of duty insisted upon by DDA at present should be dispensed with.

As for the government, it is happy to have the allottee/owner pay all duties according to the existing rules, while it expects DDA to conduct standard checks at the time of executing the deed. "When the instrument reaches the sub-registrar for execution, he is in any case duty-bound to check that the stamp duty has been paid in full," explained Kumar. In case the registrar finds that duty paid falls short of the designated amount, he is likely to impound the property and send the owner/allottee to the CoS for repaying the shortfall. 

This modification will save at least 10 days because the allottees/owners will no longer be required to apply for and obtain the final stamped documents from the CoS. As it is there is an unnecessary workload on the skeletal staff of the stamp office, so this step will benefit the CoS staff, freeing them to tackle the more pressing cases of duty evasion and incomplete duty payment.