- Bribe Hotline
- 14 years ago
- 3014 views
One Cannot register a property in Bangalore without paying a Bribe. May i know if any action is being taken on this or please advise to common public how to avoid these bribes (Say, call a Lokayukta o
Please do not be so pessimistic! Let us analyse the situation dispassionately. You want to buy a property. You want to register its sale. I presume that you want to pay the entire amount through cheque. In other words, the entire transaction is above board. Then tell me, how can anybody stop you? Its 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 during registration. 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!
So what did the government do? They 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 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.
Why do we still pay bribes? Because, my friend, we have not changed our mindsets! Because our body language is the same, we go to a government office looking nervous; we behave submissively! Because we still think that the government will harm us in some way! Because we do not do the simplest homework before going to any government office! And because, for many of us, we will happily pull out money from our pocket to bribe people, even before they ask us, sometimes!
One practical minded individual has sent us some very interesting rules to avoid being asked for a bribe and one of the things he says is as follows:
Dont be submissive. Call Government officials by their names. Dont call them -sir. Be polite but dont show unnecessary respect. Be firm and confident. Talk about RTI Act & citizens charters. Government officials are always afraid of knowledgeable people, he concludes.