- Bribe Hotline
- 13 years ago
- 1698 views
Hi, my name is Madhuraj.NB, i am planning to buy a property in Bangalore. The registration office has asked me to pay Rs.15000/- as charges for registration and Rs.1000/- for the computer typist. My a
Please do not listen to anyone and pay a bribe for registration. If you want to buy a property and register its sale and if you want to pay the entire amount through cheque, then the entire transaction is above board. In such cases, nobody can stop you and It is your right to have the sale deed registered! And do you know who will lose if you do not register it? The government, because they collect stamp duty on the transaction.
In the past, there was a lot of scope for corruption. This was because the buyer would pay some part of the sale amount in unaccounted money. The registration office would know about it. So they threatened the buyer with the threat that they would launch an investigation into undervaluation! In such circumstances, the registration office and the buyer colluded to declare a low value and the buyer parted with a bribe, to pay the registration office authorities to look the other way. Who was the loser? The government, which was not getting the full stamp duty that ought to have been paid!
To curb this, the government came out with fixed area wise guidance values. Regardless of the value on your sale deed, you had to pay the stamp duty as per the guidance value, (or the sale deed value, whichever is higher). This has changed the situation completely. The registrar’s office has no discretion now. They must register your deed. Then tell me, my friend, why should you pay a bribe?
What can the registration office do if you do not pay a bribe? They can make you wait, thats all! And even there they cannot do much.
Please immediately do the following things.
Please go to the registration departments website, at
http://www.karigr.org/citizen/default.htm
Here you can download the citizens charter of the registration department. Do you in know in how much time the sub registrar has committed to complete your transaction? 2 hours 20 minutes! 20 minutes to verify the market value of property, 1 hour for Preliminary scrutiny of documents, enclosures and issue of Form No.1A. and one hour for admission of documents, recording signatures etc. Please print out the citizens charter and carry it with you. Let us see how many officials will disregard their own departments citizens charter!
At the end of the day, the registrars office is bluffing you. They have no discretion to refuse to undertake a registration, if your papers are in order. According to their own citizens charter, they have committed to finish your transaction within a short time. If they demand a bribe from you, it is because they believe they can fool you, for some more time at least. If you stay firm and insist upon getting the registration done, then the registration department cannot refuse to register the transaction.
On ipaidabribe.com, we analysed the registration department bribe experiences of more than 500 citizens and found that in many cases, the prompting to pay a bribe comes from the builder, the lawyers of the builder, chartered accountants and even relatives and friends. You can read the downloadable Janamahithi report that is on the site.
Everybody wants to avoid 'trouble' and that is the problem. In fighting corruption, the biggest enemy is within us. Please take courage. Today the climate is very very anti corruption, because of the public agitations that have erupted all over the country. The registration staff should also be aware of this. Please raise your voice. Even wear an anti corruption badge when you go to the registration office. That will put some fear in the staff and make them think twice before demanding a bribe.
Once you have successfully completed your transaction without paying a bribe, please report your experience under the section 'I didn't pay a bribe', so that it can be an inspiration to others not to pay bribes.