WB to reduce stamp duty on properties worth above Rs 40L

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government has proposed to reduce stamp duty on properties worth above Rs 40 lakh by a per cent to 6 per cent, state Finance Minister Amit Mitra has said.

Mitra was speaking at the assembly here after laying the West Bengal Finance Bill 2015 for next year.

The reduction in stamp duty for properties above Rs 40 lakh from seven per cent to six per cent would encourage more registration by those who had not registered so far, he said.

This one per cent decrease would act as an incentive for registration, which in turn would increase the revenue of the state, he added.

The Minister further said that Budget had allocated 37.62 per cent of the total outlay to the social sector like health and education.

Replying to a member's question on whether the government was tweaking the sales tax on gold, Mitra replied in negative.

The government, he said, plans to make the state a future destination for gold and jewellery industry for which it had created 2.5 lakh square feet of vertical space at Domjur in Howrah.

The West Bengal Appropriation Bill 2015 was also passed on the last day of the Budget Session.