The Punjab Cabinet, led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Thursday approved an amendment to the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961 and the withdrawal of stamp duty and registration fee exemptions for certain classes of cooperative societies.
Currently, the Act provides exemptions from compulsory registration, originally intended to facilitate the development of cooperative institutions. However, this provision enabled property transactions, particularly in urban housing societies, to take place without formal registration or the payment of stamp duty and registration fees, said the spokesperson.
With this amendment, residents who buy apartments/flats from original allottees or subsequent buyers will now have to pay stamp duty while getting their property registered with the revenue department of the government from now on.
“The original allottees pay the stamp duty while getting the registry in their names. It was seen that the subsequent owners, who purchased these properties from the original allottees did not get it registered. The original allottees hand over the original letter of allotment to the subsequent buyers. This way they did not need to pay stamp duty to the government,” said a source.
The situation has encouraged unregistered possession, benami transactions, and other legally risky arrangements. Therefore, an amendment to Section 37 of the Act has been made by adding Clauses 2 and 3. These clauses stipulate that the State Government may, through a notification in the Official Gazette, direct that the exemption under sub-section (1), or any part thereof, shall not apply to certain classes of cooperative societies or specified categories of instruments. Upon the issuance of such a notification, the instruments so notified shall be deemed to fall within the scope of clauses (b) and (c) of sub-section (1) of Section 17 of the Indian Registration Act, 1908, and will accordingly be subject to compulsory registration under that Ac.
Panchayat development secretary post
To enhance the development of rural areas through proper execution and supervision, the Cabinet also approved the creation of the post of Panchayat Development Secretary by merging the cadres of Panchayat Secretaries and Gram Sevaks (Village Development Officers). Subsequently, a state cadre will be constituted for these posts to accelerate rural development across Punjab. For existing Panchayat Secretaries, a dying cadre will be created, who will be placed based on their self-declaration letters and as per their seniority, following the existing Gram Sevaks in the seniority list.
