It has come to light that Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s son, Parth Pawar, and his firm, Amedea Enterprises LLP, will have to pay double stamp duty, which adds up to Rs 42 crore, to cancel his transaction in the controversial land sale case in Mundhwa, Pune.
Earlier, the deputy CM had announced that the sale deed executed by his son’s firm for a government-owned land in Pune has been canceled. However, the Registrar’s office of the Department of Registration and Stamps has now clarified the that the stamp duty exemption which was granted earlier to the company is no longer applicable.
The office informed Digvijay Amarsinh Patil, a cousin and partner of Parth Pawar in the enterprise, that they must pay the earlier 7 per cent stamp duty. The reason was that the exemption was sought earlier by claiming that a data centre was to be built on the land. The cancellation deed now submitted showed that the IT park plan has been dropped, it noted.
In the 7 per cent, 5 per cent goes under the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1 percent to Local Body Tax, and 1 percent is Metro Cess.
An additional 7 percent stamp duty will also have to be paid to execute the cancellation deed, officials from the department said.
Joint Inspector General of Stamps and Registration, Rajendra Muthe, told PTI, "However, during the scrutiny, it was revealed that an exemption can not be given to such a proposal and hence, the firm will have to pay an earlier stamp duty that is 7 per cent and an additional 7 per cent to execute the cancellation deed," he said.
The department said, "If Amedea Company wants to hand over the land back to the original owner, Sheetal Tejwani, it is mandatory to pay the full stamp duty. That is, even if the transaction is canceled, it will have to be re-transacted, and an expense of Rs 21 crore will have to be incurred for that."
A copy of the letter also said that the deed will only be canceleld after the stamp duty is paid.
On Thursday, a sale deed of Rs 40 crore of government-owned land in Mundhwa to Amadea Enterprises came under scanner after it required clearances. Opposition leaders alleged that the total market value of the land was Rs 1,800 crore.
After a complaint was filed by the Inspector General of Registrar's office, officers registered an FIR aaginst Digvijay Patil, Shital Tejwani (who represented the 272 'owners' of the land through a power of attorney), and sub-registrar R B Taru for alleged misappropriation and cheating. The firm had allegedly waived off the 7 per cent stamp duty by colluding with R B Taru, who executed the deal at the sub-registrar's office.
A 7 per cent stamp duty for the Rs 300 crore deal comes to Rs 21 crore.
Ajit Pawar claimed that his son was unaware that the land which was purchased belonged to the Mumbai state goverment.
