Amendment to Table of Fees under the Registration Act

What the notifications change

Government Order Ms. No. 39 dated 30 May 2014 and Government Order Ms. No. 40 dated 30 May 2014 were issued by the Commercial Taxes and Registration Department under Section 78 of the Registration Act, 1908. They amend the Table of Fees originally published with Judicial Department Notification No. 177 dated 30 March 1909, as subsequently amended.

Both amendments came into force on 2 June 2014.

Power of attorney registration fees

Government Order Ms. No. 39 changes Article 1, clause (a), sub-clause (11) of the Table of Fees. The key provisions are:

• For the instrument covered by item (i), the fee is the higher of the fee chargeable on the consideration stated in the instrument or the registration fee under clause (ii)(a) or clause (ii)(b), whichever applies.
• A new condition applies when a power of attorney under sub-item (a) or (b) is executed by more than one person.
• Separate registration fees must be charged for each person if those persons are neither co-owners by act of parties nor co-parceners by operation of law.
• Each separate fee must be charged at the rate prescribed under sub-item (a) or (b), as applicable.

This provision directly affects people jointly executing a covered power of attorney where they do not have the co-owner or co-parcener relationship described in the notification.

Registration under Section 70-B

Government Order Ms. No. 40 replaces clause (3) of Article 3 of the Table of Fees. The substituted entry provides:

• The extra fee for registration under Section 70-B(1) is 100.00.
• That amount includes scanning charges for the first ten pages of the document.
• Every page above ten pages carries an additional charge of Rs.15.

A person presenting a document for registration under Section 70-B may therefore pay more when the document exceeds ten pages.