Stamp duty on a sale deed in Karnataka
A state charge on the instrument, levied under the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957, computed on the value of the property rather than only on the price you agreed, and payable before or at the time the deed is executed.
- Who sets the figureA charge on this subject belongs to a body that can change it by publishing something. Knowing which body, and under which Act, is what makes the current number findable at all.
The Karnataka legislature. Stamp duty on a conveyance of immovable property in Karnataka is charged under the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957 — a state Act, not the central one — and the amount for each kind of instrument sits in the Schedule to that Act, which the state amends.
The Department of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka, administers the levy: its sub-registrar offices are where the instrument is presented, and the department is the body that publishes the operative tables and the valuation on which duty is computed.
The reason it is the state and not Parliament is in the Constitution. The Seventh Schedule puts the rates of stamp duty on documents other than those listed in the Union List with the states, and puts stamp duties generally on the Concurrent List. The machinery can be shared across India; the price of the stamp is not.
The Act, and the section
- Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957 — section 3
The charging section — it makes an instrument of the kinds listed in the Schedule chargeable with duty.
- Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957
Section not transcribed
The Schedule, which fixes the duty for each kind of instrument, including a conveyance. It is amended by the state; the article number and the figure in it are not printed here.
- Constitution of India, Seventh Schedule — List II, entry 63 and List III, entry 44
Puts the rates of stamp duty on documents other than those in the Union List with the states, which is why the same sale deed is charged differently on either side of a state border.
The Act is certain; the section number was not transcribed against the bare Act and is therefore not printed. Read the Act on India Code, or ask your advocate for the section — do not take one from a page that did not check it either.
SourcesDepartment of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka — Sub Registrars — office directory (opens in a new tab)Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India — India Code — the bare Acts (opens in a new tab)
- Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957 — section 3
- Where the current figure is publishedThe address to go to instead of trusting a number on a page like this one. If a figure matters to your decision, take it from here on the day you need it.
The Department of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka. Its own site carries the department's tables and its office directory; the Kaveri portal is where the valuation used for a specific property is looked up and where the document is ultimately registered.
One practical warning about the address. Karnataka's registration portal answers at kaveri.karnataka.gov.in. A great many government pages and very many third-party guides still link to the older kaverionline.karnataka.gov.in, and this site's own portal walkthrough records that the older address did not respond from our network on the day it was checked, although the name still resolves. If a Kaveri link somebody sent you does not load, that is the first thing to check.
SourcesDepartment of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka — Sub Registrars — office directory (opens in a new tab)Department of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka — Kaveri Online Services (opens in a new tab)Department of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka — Kaveri Online Services — the older address (opens in a new tab)
- What the figure is charged onThe part buyers get wrong. Two homes at the same agreed price can carry different charges, because the agreed price is not always the amount the charge is computed on.
Not simply the price you agreed. Duty on a conveyance is computed on the value of the property for the purposes of the stamp law, and Karnataka publishes a value for that purpose — the guidance value — property by property. Where the consideration written into the instrument is below the published value, it is the published value that governs. In practice the duty is worked out on whichever of the two is higher.
That single sentence is the commonest surprise at the sub-registrar's counter. A buyer who has budgeted from the agreed price alone, on a property where the published value is higher, has budgeted from the wrong number — and the difference is not negotiable at the counter, because the officer is applying a published value rather than forming a view about your bargain.
The Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957 also provides machinery for the case where an instrument is presented at a value the officer considers understated: the matter is referred for determination of the market value, and duty follows that determination. Undervaluing a deed to save duty is therefore not a saving; it is a deferral with a process attached.
The Act, and the section
- Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957
Section not transcribed
Provides for reference and determination of market value where an instrument is presented as undervalued. The section number was not transcribed here.
The Act is certain; the section number was not transcribed against the bare Act and is therefore not printed. Read the Act on India Code, or ask your advocate for the section — do not take one from a page that did not check it either.
What we could not establish
An apartment purchase in Karnataka is frequently split into two documents — a sale deed for the undivided share of land and a separate construction agreement. How duty falls across that split is a question the department has taken positions on, and this page does not state one. Ask the sub-registrar's office and your own advocate what is chargeable on which document, before either is drafted.
SourcesDepartment of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka — Kaveri Online Services (opens in a new tab)Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India — India Code — the bare Acts (opens in a new tab)
- Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957
- Who owes itNot always the person who hands over the money. On one of these charges the obligation sits with the buyer and almost nobody knows it, which is how a penalty arrives years later.
The buyer, in the ordinary case, and by default rather than by custom. Stamp law puts the expense of providing the proper stamp on a conveyance on the grantee — the person taking the property — unless the parties have agreed otherwise in the contract itself.
So it is a default that a contract can move. If your agreement is silent, the duty is yours. If somebody tells you the seller or the promoter is bearing it, that is a term, and a term belongs in the document rather than in a conversation.
The Act, and the section
- Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — section 29
The model provision: in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, the expense of providing the proper stamp on a conveyance is borne by the grantee.
- Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957
Section not transcribed
Carries the state's own equivalent of that rule. The section number was not transcribed here.
The Act is certain; the section number was not transcribed against the bare Act and is therefore not printed. Read the Act on India Code, or ask your advocate for the section — do not take one from a page that did not check it either.
- Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — section 29
- When it falls dueLate is a different amount from on time, and on some of these it is a different document as well. The deadline runs from an event, not from your convenience.
Before or at the time the instrument is executed. Stamp duty is a charge on the document, not on the transaction behind it, and the document is supposed to arrive at execution already stamped — which is why the duty is arranged in advance rather than settled afterwards.
Registration is a separate deadline and it is the one written into a central Act: a document other than a will must be presented for registration within four months of its execution. That figure is printed here because it is in the body of the Act and you can check it against the section, unlike every rate on this page.
Delay is not fatal but it is expensive and discretionary. The Registration Act, 1908 allows a document presented late to be accepted on payment of a fine, within a further period the Act fixes; the amount of the fine is a matter for the registering officer within the limit the Act sets, and it is not printed here.
The Act, and the section
- Registration Act, 1908 — section 23
No document other than a will is accepted for registration unless presented within four months from the date of its execution.
- Registration Act, 1908 — sections 25 and 34
Deal with delay — in presenting the document, and in the parties appearing — and allow acceptance on payment of a fine within limits the Act fixes.
- Registration Act, 1908 — section 17
Lists the documents whose registration is compulsory, which is what makes this deadline yours rather than optional.
SourcesLegislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India — India Code — the bare Acts (opens in a new tab)Department of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka — Kaveri Online Services (opens in a new tab)
- Registration Act, 1908 — section 23
- What proves it was paidA payment you cannot evidence later is a payment you may be asked to make again. This is the piece to keep, and the piece to ask for before you sign anything.
The registered instrument itself. A document that has been through the process comes back endorsed by the registering officer, and that endorsement — with the receipt for what was paid — is the evidence. Keep the original somewhere you can find it, and take a certified copy from the same office if a second is needed.
The independent check, afterwards, is an encumbrance certificate from the same department: it reports what was registered against the property over a period, so a registration that happened will show up in a search that a stranger can run. An unregistered document is not merely informal — the Registration Act, 1908 limits what a court may do with it.
Ask for these before you pay anything: the seller's own title documents, and the encumbrance certificate. Ask for them from the seller, then check the register yourself rather than checking the copy you were handed.
The Act, and the section
- Registration Act, 1908 — section 49
Sets out the consequence of not registering a document that section 17 requires to be registered — it does not affect the immovable property and may not be received as evidence of the transaction, subject to the section's own provisos.
SourcesDepartment of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka — Kaveri Online Services (opens in a new tab)Department of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka — Sub Registrars — office directory (opens in a new tab)
- Registration Act, 1908 — section 49