SUYUG Infra

Tax and duty

Stamp duty and registration across a state line

The corridor out of Sarjapur crosses a state line, and the line moves more than the price of the stamp. This page holds the two regimes against each other row by row — and marks, just as plainly, the rows where the two states are governed by the identical central provision. It publishes no percentage for either.

5 rows differ. 6 are identical.

Both counts are computed from the table below rather than written here, and the second one is the half a comparison page is usually tempted to hide. Most of the machinery of registration is one central Act operating in both states; what changes at the border is the stamp, the department, the portal, the published valuation and the regulator.

Last reviewed . No percentage appears for either state, for the reason set out below.

What this page answers

The position

Two columns, no percentages

The obvious thing for a page like this to do is put two figures side by side. That version is wrong the morning either state amends its schedule, and it goes on being quoted for years afterwards.

Every figure on this subject is set by a notification, a rule, a schedule or a Finance Act, and each of those is amended without warning you. The duty on a conveyance, the registration fee, the rate on an under-construction home, the rate and threshold a buyer withholds under section 194-IA — none of them is a fact about the world. Each is a fact about what somebody published last.

A web page that prints one of those numbers is a snapshot with no expiry date on it. It cannot know when the notification changed, so it goes on stating the old figure with exactly the confidence it had on the day it was written — to you, and to the answer engines that quote it. That is what happens to every page in this subject that prints a rate, including the ones that were right when they were published.

So these pages print none. What they give you instead is the part that does not go stale: which authority sets the figure, where that authority publishes the current one, what the figure is charged on, who owes it, when it falls due, and which document proves it was paid. Take the number from the authority. Take the structure from here.

What is not on this page

  • No stamp duty percentage, for either state.
  • No registration fee percentage, for either state.
  • No GST rate, and no deemed value fraction from the rate notification.
  • No guidance value and no guideline value — not a figure, not a range, not an example.
  • No rate, threshold or penalty amount under section 194-IA.
  • No rupees per square foot, and no worked total that would imply one.
  • No completion or handover date, on any project, anywhere on this site.

Each state has its own page here, asking the same six questions of the same two charges: Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

  • A number in the body of an Act is quoted, with its section. You can check it against the bare Act in a minute, which is the same standard this site's glossary applies to statutory definitions. There are very few such numbers on these pages — the period the Registration Act, 1908 allows for presenting a document, in section 23, is the clearest of them.

  • A number fixed by notification, rule, schedule or Finance Act is named, not printed. Every rate on this subject is in that class. The authority that publishes the current one is named and linked instead, on every answer that would otherwise be tempted to quote it.

  • A section number we did not transcribe is marked, not guessed. Where the Act is certain and the section was not checked against the bare Act, the Act is cited and the section carries a visible mark. A confident-looking citation nobody verified is worse than an admitted gap, because a reader cannot tell the two apart.

  • Nothing here is advice, and none of it is specific to your transaction. These pages describe a general structure. What you owe depends on your document, your residence status, the parties and the property, and that is a conversation with your own advocate and your own chartered accountant — neither of whom is us.

11 questions

Question by question

Each row carries a mark computed from the row itself: whether the two states are governed by the same provision, or whether this is one of the places the border actually bites.

Which Act charges the stamp duty

Differs at the border

Karnataka

The Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957 — the state's own stamp code, with the duty for each instrument in its Schedule.

Tamil Nadu

The Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — the central Act, as amended in its application to the state, with the rates in its Schedule as they stand for Tamil Nadu.

This is the first thing that changes at the border, and it changes which document you go and read. A Karnataka answer quoted at a Tamil Nadu counter is not a slightly wrong answer; it is an answer about a different statute.

The Act, and the section

  • Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957 — section 3

    Karnataka's charging section.

  • Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — section 3

    The central charging section, which is what operates in Tamil Nadu.

SourceLegislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India — India Code — the bare Acts (opens in a new tab)

Which Act governs the registration

Same in both states

Karnataka

The Registration Act, 1908.

Tamil Nadu

The Registration Act, 1908.

One central Act, both states. Which is why the machinery of registration — what must be registered, who presents it, what happens if you do not — reads the same on either side of the line even though the price does not.

The Act, and the section

  • Registration Act, 1908 — sections 17 and 49

    What must be registered, and what an unregistered document cannot do.

SourceLegislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India — India Code — the bare Acts (opens in a new tab)

Which department you deal with

Differs at the border

Karnataka

The Department of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka.

Tamil Nadu

The Registration Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, headed by the Inspector-General of Registration.

Different departments, different offices, different helplines, different forms. A sub-registrar in one state has no jurisdiction over land in the other, and no amount of proximity changes that.

SourcesDepartment of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka — Sub Registrars — office directory (opens in a new tab)Registration Department, Government of Tamil Nadu — TNREGINET — Inspector General of Registration (opens in a new tab)

Which portal publishes the current charges and values

Differs at the border

Karnataka

Kaveri Online Services, at kaveri.karnataka.gov.in. Note that the older kaverionline address is still linked from many pages.

Tamil Nadu

TNREGINET, at tnreginet.gov.in.

Two addresses to bookmark, not one. These are the pages to read on the day a figure matters — and the pages this site sends you to instead of printing a number.

SourcesDepartment 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)Registration Department, Government of Tamil Nadu — TNREGINET — Inspector General of Registration (opens in a new tab)

What the published valuation floor is called

Differs at the border

Karnataka

Guidance value.

Tamil Nadu

Guideline value.

The same idea under two names, and the near-identical words are a trap rather than a convenience: a search for one term returns pages about the other state's system, written with total confidence about the wrong jurisdiction.

SourcesDepartment of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka — Kaveri Online Services (opens in a new tab)Registration Department, Government of Tamil Nadu — TNREGINET — Inspector General of Registration (opens in a new tab)

What the duty is computed on

Same in both states

Karnataka

The value for the purposes of the stamp law — in practice the higher of the consideration in the instrument and the published guidance value.

Tamil Nadu

The same structure — the higher of the consideration and the published guideline value.

The rule is the same in both states even though the number and the name are not. Budgeting from the agreed price alone is the same mistake on both sides of the border.

SourcesDepartment of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka — Kaveri Online Services (opens in a new tab)Registration Department, Government of Tamil Nadu — TNREGINET — Inspector General of Registration (opens in a new tab)

Who bears the duty on a sale deed

Same in both states

Karnataka

The buyer, unless the contract says otherwise.

Tamil Nadu

The buyer, unless the contract says otherwise.

A default, not a law of nature. It is moveable by agreement in both states, which means it is a term to look for in the draft rather than an assumption to carry into the transaction.

The Act, and the section

  • Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — section 29

    The model rule — the grantee bears the expense of the stamp on a conveyance, absent an agreement to the contrary.

SourceLegislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India — India Code — the bare Acts (opens in a new tab)

How long you have to register the document

Same in both states

Karnataka

Four months from execution, under section 23 of the Registration Act, 1908.

Tamil Nadu

Four months from execution, under section 23 of the Registration Act, 1908.

One of the very few numbers these pages print, and the reason is the rule the pages run on: it is in the body of an Act, so you can check it against the section rather than against us.

The Act, and the section

  • Registration Act, 1908 — section 23

    The period for presenting a document for registration.

SourceLegislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India — India Code — the bare Acts (opens in a new tab)

Where the registration fee comes from

Same in both states

Karnataka

A table the State Government fixes and publishes under the central Registration Act, 1908.

Tamil Nadu

A table the State Government fixes and publishes under the central Registration Act, 1908.

Same mechanism, two tables, two different figures. This is the clearest example of why 'is it a central rule or a state rule?' is the wrong question — here it is both at once.

The Act, and the section

  • Registration Act, 1908 — sections 78 and 79

    The power to fix a table of fees, and the requirement to publish it.

SourceLegislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India — India Code — the bare Acts (opens in a new tab)

Which regulator the project must be registered with

Differs at the border

Karnataka

The Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority.

Tamil Nadu

The Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority.

Under one central Act, the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 — but two registers, and a project appears on exactly one of them. A registration number from the wrong state is not a registration at all.

The Act, and the section

  • Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 — section 3

    Prohibits advertising, marketing, booking, selling or offering for sale a project in a planning area without registering it with the authority for that state.

SourcesKarnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority — K-RERA portal (opens in a new tab)Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority — TNRERA portal (opens in a new tab)

Why the two states differ at all

Same in both states

Karnataka

Because rates of stamp duty on documents are a state subject under the Constitution.

Tamil Nadu

Because rates of stamp duty on documents are a state subject under the Constitution.

The Seventh Schedule puts the rates of stamp duty on documents other than those in the Union List with the states, and puts registration of deeds on the Concurrent List. That single design decision is why the machinery is shared and the price is not — and why no national answer to 'what is the stamp duty' has ever existed.

The Act, and the section

  • Constitution of India, Seventh Schedule — List I entry 91, List II entry 63 and List III entries 6 and 44

    Splits stamp duty between the Union and the states by subject matter, and places transfer of property other than agricultural land, and registration of deeds and documents, on the Concurrent List.

SourceLegislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India — India Code — the bare Acts (opens in a new tab)

Why this page exists here

We are registered on both sides of it

A two-state comparison written by somebody who has registered a project in neither state is research. This one is written by a promoter that answers to both regulators, and the registrations are published rather than described.

Registered with K-RERA

  • THE1 — Bengaluru Urban district, Karnataka. Registered with the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority, number PRM/KA/RERA/1251/310/PR/051224/007268.
  • Saffron — Bengaluru Urban district, Karnataka. Registered with the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority, number PRM/KA/RERA/1251/308/PR/140825/008000.

Registered with TNRERA

  • The Big Banyan — Krishnagiri district, Tamil Nadu. Registered with the Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority, number TNRERA/30/LO/1146/2026.

Those numbers are read from the same file every page on this site reads, and each of them is transcribed from the issued certificate rather than from marketing material. You can check every one of them on the regulator’s own register — the RERA page publishes the promoter as registered, the survey line and the dates alongside them.

What that buys you here is not authority. It is the incentive to describe the boring, identical parts accurately: we file under both regimes, so a comparison that exaggerated the differences would be a comparison our own conveyancing would contradict.

Questions people ask

Questions

Every answer below is the exact string this page publishes as structured data. There is no second version written for machines.

Why is stamp duty different in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu?
Because the Constitution makes it so. The Seventh Schedule puts the rates of stamp duty on documents other than those in the Union List with the states, so each state sets its own. Registration of deeds sits on the Concurrent List and is governed by one central Act, which is why the machinery is shared and the price is not.
Is the registration process itself different across the two states?
The framework is identical, because the Registration Act, 1908 is a central Act that applies in both. What must be registered, who may present it, the period for presenting it and the consequences of not registering read the same. The department, the offices, the portal, the published valuation and the fee table are all different.
Does a K-RERA registration mean anything for land in Tamil Nadu?
No. The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 is central, but each state has its own authority and its own register, and a project appears on exactly one of them. Land in Krishnagiri district, Tamil Nadu is registered with the Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority; a Karnataka number on it would be a claim about the wrong register.
Is guidance value the same as guideline value?
They are the same idea with different names in different states, published by different departments on different portals. Karnataka publishes guidance value; Tamil Nadu publishes guideline value. Neither is a market price, and neither one governs anything on the other side of the border.

Everything this page relies on

Sources, and how each was handled

Two kinds, and the difference is printed rather than smoothed over. One set was opened; the other is named so you can reach the authority, and nothing here is quoted from it.

Opened

Already in this site's own source register for the portal guides and the jurisdiction finder, and opened on the date that register records.

  • Department of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka

    Sub Registrars — office directory (opens in a new tab)

    igr.karnataka.gov.in

    The department that administers stamp duty and registration in Karnataka, and the sub-registrar offices a document is presented at.

  • Department of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka

    Kaveri Online Services (opens in a new tab)

    kaveri.karnataka.gov.in

    Karnataka's registration portal — where a document is registered and searched, where the office holding a village is confirmed, and where the department publishes the values and charges this page refuses to print.

  • Department of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka

    Kaveri Online Services — the older address (opens in a new tab)

    kaverionline.karnataka.gov.in

    The address a great many guides still send you to. Our own portal walkthrough records that it did not respond from our network on the date it was checked, while the name still resolves.

  • Registration Department, Government of Tamil Nadu

    TNREGINET — Inspector General of Registration (opens in a new tab)

    tnreginet.gov.in

    Tamil Nadu's registration portal — where a document is registered and searched, where the sub-registry holding a village is confirmed, and where the department publishes the guideline value.

  • Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority

    K-RERA portal (opens in a new tab)

    rera.karnataka.gov.in

    The register a project on Karnataka land is registered on, and searched on.

  • Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority

    TNRERA portal (opens in a new tab)

    rera.tn.gov.in

    The register a project on Tamil Nadu land is registered on, and searched on.

  • SUYUG Infra

    RERA registrations & approvals

    suyug.com

    Every SUYUG registration number, authority, promoter and survey line transcribed from the certificate — the primary-source version of the two-state comparison on these pages.

Every address above was opened on . Government sites move their pages; if one of these no longer resolves, the fact it holds up is unverified until someone finds where it went, not true because it was true once.

Named, not opened

The department's own published address, named here so you can reach the authority. It was not opened as part of this review, and this page quotes nothing from it.

Adjacent

What to read next

Two regimes, one conversation

If you are weighing a home in one state against land in the other, the charges are only half of it — the documents, the registers and the approvals differ as well. Bring the questions; we would far rather answer a well-informed one.

See our registrationsEvery buyer tool