Fall in Noida, Gzb property registrations
Property registrations in both Noida and Ghaziabad have been affected since the Centre’s demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
From 300 property registrations a day, Ghaziabad tehsil’s registrations fell to four properties on Wednesday, a day after the announcement, officials at the stamps department said.
Though stamp duty can be paid by demand draft, the registration fee has to be paid in cash.
Officials at the Ghaziabad tehsil said they got directions from their parent department at Lucknow not to accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes as registration fee.
“We accept registration fee in cash. Property owners are suddenly not left with ample cash in their hands as the notes’ circulation was scrapped. We are not accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes now. The same situation is expected to persist for some time now till new notes arrive,” said assistant commissioner (stamps), Rajesh Kumar.
Noida’s registry office remained closed on Thursday due to the demise of an employee. On Wednesday, the registry office witnessed a steep decline in revenue. Earlier, the department generated Rs 5 crore per day with over 1,300 registries of flats and plots. On Wednesday, the office collected Rs 2 lakh.
The electricity department, however, decided to accept old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes till Friday. “The decision was taken by higher officials in Lucknow. We are sending bulk SMSs and trying to inform customer through other sources,” said SK Gupta, chief engineer (distribution), Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited.
The move has taken a toll on traffic challans with cops abstaining from collecting on-the-spot fines. The officials said they sent all challans to the court instead.
“We are not deducting spot fines at present. As a result, there is some decline in the number of challans as well in past two days,” said superintendent of police (traffic), Rajesh Kumar.
On Monday and Tuesday, the cops issued challans in 731 and 816 instances and collected Rs 94,800 and Rs 1.22 lakh, respectively.
On Wednesday, the figure stood at 684 with Rs 88400 collected in on-the-spot fines.