Srinagar, Dec 25:Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday cautioned the J&K Governor’s administration thatwhile revising the stamp duty rates no such measure is taken that reverses the order that waives-off stamp duty if the property is registered in the name of a female member.
An official government handout Monday said the Governor administration was finalising new stamp duty rates, which shall be applicable in Kashmir from 2019.
Former Minister and senior PDP leader Naeem Akhtar, as per a PDP spokesperson, said that the party expects that the order pertaining to zero stamp duty for women issued by the PDP-led government in the past isn’t fiddled with.
“It is a revolutionary measure which has for the first time sought to empower women in the real sense by making them stakeholders in real estate and family property. Even the early statistics also suggest that now more properties are being registered in the name of female members of the family which inherently vest them with unprecedented leverage. Such a decision taken by the PDP government has come in praise at the national level as well,” Akhtar said.
He said that waiving off stamp duty for women in J&K has been a “singular and the most important intervention to ensure gender equality in the state and hence the government is cautioned that it should not be fiddled with.”
Akhtar also stated that while rationalization of the stamp duty is an ongoing process, PDP hopes that it results in creating an atmosphere conducive to more progress and benefits the landowners especially whose lands are being acquired for development projects in Jammu and Kashmir.
