Rs 30,000Cr Black Money Invested In Hyderabad Realty

[Spartan]

[b]Hyderabad: [/b]Unaccounted money to the tune of at least Rs 30,000 crore has been invested in real estate in the state ever since the sector witnessed a boom a few years ago.
A special drive launched recently by the income-tax department, with the help of the state stamps and registration department, revealed that about 1.5 lakh real estate transactions were dubious.

“People involved in these transactions, which have taken place since 2006-2007, had concealed the actual consideration value,” Official sources said.
It was found that in all these cases, the property sellers claimed to have received a consideration which is less than the official market value fixed by the stamps and registration department for the property. The difference varied from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 crore.

Section 50 (C) of the Income-Tax Act, 1961, clearly says that if the sale consideration claimed by the property seller is less than the rate fixed by the stamp valuation authority, the I-T authorities shall take the latter as the actual sale consideration and levy tax on it.

Sources said in one case, the seller claimed to have received Rs 2.5 crore and reflected the same amount in the registration document. But, the value of the property was fixed at Rs 10 crore by the registration authorities.

“There are about 300 cases where the difference between the sellers’ claim and value fixed by us for levy of stamp duty is more than Rs 1 crore,” said a senior state official.

Significantly, a similar drive in Maharashtra revealed that in Mumbai alone there were 20,000 cases where the discrepancy in sale consideration is above Rs 1 crore.

Sources said Section 50 (C) is not applicable only if the seller can prove that the fair market value is really less than the official market value fixed by the registration authorities.

“This does not arise in the case of the transactions that have come under scrutiny as a majority of them took place when the real estate market was at its peak,” sources said.

The I-T department is said to have issued notices to all the property sellers and some of them have paid the tax for the difference in amount.