In the Municipal Corporation of Delhi area, a man buying a property valued at up to Rs 25 lakh pays 6 per cent of the value in duty, and a woman pays 4 per cent on the share she holds. Above Rs 25 lakh in the same area those figures become 7 per cent and 5 per cent. Every buyer in Delhi also pays a registration fee of 1 per cent on the same value, plus a Rs 100 pasting fee. That duty figure is two taxes added together, the stamp duty proper and a municipal transfer duty, and the local body your address falls under decides whether the second one applies and whether the Rs 25 lakh threshold protects you from it.

Willjini is India's most trusted Succession Planning company. Where a property is changing hands inside a family, what becomes payable depends on the document that is used, and WillJini identifies the right one before the deed is drafted.

Does this page cover my property in Delhi?

The stamp duty rates below apply to property anywhere in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, because the Indian Stamp (Delhi Amendment) Act 2007 extends to the whole of it. What is charged on top of that duty changes with the local body, and neither the New Delhi Municipal Council nor the Delhi Cantonment Board follows the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's threshold. Property transferred by gift follows different rules, and those are in our guide to gift deed stamp duty in Delhi. If you need a gift deed drafted and registered, that is our gift deed service in New Delhi.

Related guides:

• Will registration in Delhi
• Property documents checklist for India

What will the Sub Registrar actually charge me in Delhi?

A Delhi buyer's total at the Sub-Registrar's office is the stamp duty, plus a municipal transfer duty charged as a surcharge on that stamp duty, plus a registration fee of 1 per cent of the value and a Rs 100 pasting fee. The stamp duty is the same figure across the National Capital Territory. The transfer duty is the part that changes, because it is levied by the local body the property falls under.

Stamp duty in Delhi is set by Article 23 of Schedule 1-A of the Indian Stamp Act 1899 as in force in the NCT of Delhi. That Article was substituted by section 2 of the Indian Stamp (Delhi Amendment) Act 2007, which is also known as Delhi Act 10 of 2007. The Assembly passed the amendment on 18 September 2007 and the President assented to it on 5 November 2007. Notification No. F.14(20)/LA-2007/LJ/07/7042 of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Law and Justice department was published on 18 November 2007, and under section 1(2) the Act extends to the whole of the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Article 23 sets the rate in these words:

Three percent of the consideration amount set forth in the instrument. Further reduced to two percent in respect of individually/jointly held immovable property by woman/women (Provided that in cases of jointly held immovable property, the reduced rate of stamp duty shall apply only to the share(s) held by woman/women).

A man or any other transferee therefore pays 3 per cent of the consideration set out in the instrument, and a woman pays 2 per cent on the share she holds. That is the duty under the Stamp Act alone, before the municipal transfer duty is added to it.

The registration fee applies everywhere in Delhi. It is 1 per cent of the consideration value or the circle-rate value, whichever is higher, and the office adds a Rs 100 pasting fee to it. There is no ceiling on the registration fee in Delhi, so a high-value property pays 1 per cent of its whole value.

Some documents carry a flat registration fee instead of the percentage. A relinquishment deed, a lease of immovable property, a power of attorney and a special power of attorney each attract Rs 1,000 plus the Rs 100 pasting fee. For a sale or an exchange, the 1 per cent calculation applies.

Why is the 6 per cent everyone quotes wrong above Rs 25 lakh?

The 6 per cent figure is correct only up to Rs 25 lakh in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi area. Above that value the municipal transfer duty rises from 3 per cent to 4 per cent, which takes a man's total to 7 per cent. The increase took effect on 10 July 2023 and applies to any instrument valued above Rs 25 lakh.

The transfer duty itself comes from section 147 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957. Section 113(1)(e) makes a duty on the transfer of property a tax the Corporation shall levy, section 147(2)(a) levies it as a surcharge on the Indian Stamp Act duty, and section 147(2)(b) caps it at five per cent. The surcharge covers sale, exchange, gift, mortgage with possession and lease in perpetuity.

Up to Rs 25 lakh the transfer duty is 3 per cent, and 2 per cent on a woman's share, so with the stamp duty added a man pays 6 per cent in all and a woman 4 per cent. Above Rs 25 lakh the transfer duty is 4 per cent, and 3 per cent on a woman's share, which takes those totals to 7 per cent and 5 per cent.

Consider a man buying a flat for Rs 80 lakh in the MCD area. The value is above the threshold, so the stamp duty is 3 per cent and the transfer duty is 4 per cent, a total of 7 per cent, or Rs 5,60,000. He also pays the registration fee of 1 per cent, which is Rs 80,000, and the Rs 100 pasting fee. A buyer who has budgeted 6 per cent on that flat arrives Rs 80,000 short, so the working figure above the threshold is 7 per cent of the value plus the 1 per cent fee.

A man buying a flat for Rs 20 lakh in the same MCD area has not crossed the threshold. His stamp duty is 3 per cent and his transfer duty is 3 per cent, so the tax on the purchase is 6 per cent. The 1 per cent registration fee and the Rs 100 pasting fee are added to that total.

Does the lower rate for a woman buyer apply to my purchase?

A woman pays 2 per cent stamp duty in place of 3 per cent, and where the property is held jointly that reduced rate applies only to the share she holds. The proviso to Article 23 states that in cases of jointly held immovable property, the reduced rate of stamp duty shall apply only to the shares held by women.

If a husband and wife buy together at a 70:30 split in his favour, in the MCD area and above the Rs 25 lakh threshold, the two shares are charged separately. He pays 3 per cent stamp duty and 4 per cent transfer duty on his 70 per cent. She pays 2 per cent stamp duty and 3 per cent transfer duty on her 30 per cent.

On that split the stamp duty alone works out at 2.7 per cent of the whole value, being 3 per cent on the 70 per cent share and 2 per cent on the 30 per cent share. The transfer duty is worked out across the two shares in the same way. Because the duty follows the share, the split recorded in the deed decides what the couple pays between them, and the lower rate applies only to the percentage of the property the woman actually owns.

Which local body is my property in, and why does it change the bill?

The municipal transfer duty on your purchase is set by the local body your address falls under, and for this purpose Delhi is divided between the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the New Delhi Municipal Council and the Delhi Cantonment Board. NGDRS will not calculate a duty until the Local Governing Body has been selected, so you must select it on the portal before you reach the Sub-Registrar.

In the New Delhi Municipal Council area the transfer duty comes from section 93 of the NDMC Act 1994, which uses the same surcharge mechanism as the DMC Act and carries the same five per cent cap. The rate, though, is set by an annual Council determination under section 55(2) rather than by gazette notification.

The FY 2024-25 determination was made at the Council Special Budget Meeting of 27 December 2023 and took effect on 1 April 2024. Under item (E) the Council set the transfer duty at 3 per cent where the transferee is a woman, to the extent of her share, and 4 per cent for others, with no threshold at any value.

A flat bought for Rs 20 lakh in the NDMC area gets no protection from the MCD threshold, because the NDMC rate carries no threshold and applies at every value. A man buying it pays 3 per cent stamp duty and 4 per cent transfer duty, a total of 7 per cent, plus the 1 per cent registration fee and the Rs 100 pasting fee. The same flat in the MCD area would attract 6 per cent.

No transfer duty is levied in Delhi Cantonment. Section 66(1) of the Cantonments Act 2006 imposes only property tax and a tax on trades, professions, callings and employments. Section 66(2) does allow a Board to impose, in addition, any tax that could be imposed in a municipality in the same State, with the previous sanction of the Central Government. That power has not been exercised in Delhi Cantonment: the Board's published tax list carries house tax, water tax, conservancy tax and profession tax and no transfer duty.

The MCD duty cannot apply in the Cantonment in any event, because section 2(10) of the DMC Act excludes it from what that Act means by Delhi:

"Delhi" means the entire area of the Union territory of Delhi except New Delhi and Delhi Cantonment

The Indian Stamp (Delhi Amendment) Act extends to the whole of the National Capital Territory, so the stamp duty is payable in the Cantonment as it is anywhere else in Delhi. A man buying there pays the 3 per cent stamp duty, the 1 per cent registration fee and the Rs 100 pasting fee, with no municipal surcharge on top of them. Confirm the total with the Sub-Registrar before you budget for it.

Each figure above is stamp duty and transfer duty added together. The 1 per cent registration fee and the Rs 100 pasting fee are payable on top in every one of these areas. The Cantonment row is derived from the two statutes named above rather than from a published rate, so confirm it with the Sub-Registrar.

What do I pay if I inherited the property or we are dividing it?

A relinquishment deed, which is the document a family uses when one heir gives up a share to the others, carries a flat registration fee of Rs 1,000 plus the Rs 100 pasting fee instead of the 1 per cent. The same flat fee applies to a lease of immovable property, a power of attorney and a special power of attorney.

The municipal transfer duty under section 147 is levied on a sale, an exchange, a gift, a mortgage with possession and a lease in perpetuity, so which duties your particular instrument attracts depends on which document is executed. Where the family is dividing the property between all of them, rather than one heir releasing a share to another, the instrument is a partition deed.

WillJini identifies which of these documents a family needs before anything is drafted. WillJini works out the right one for a transfer inside a family, prepares it and follows it to registration, and where an inheritance needs a succession route rather than a deed we say so before you spend on the wrong one. What that covers is set out on our page for transfer of property and inheritance assistance.

What happens if the circle rate is higher than the price I paid?

Stamp duty and the registration fee are both calculated on the consideration stated in the document or on the circle-rate value, whichever is higher. Where the price paid is lower than the circle-rate value, the duty is still calculated on the circle-rate value. If you pay Rs 60 lakh for a flat that the circle rate values at Rs 80 lakh, every duty and fee on the transaction is worked out on the Rs 80 lakh figure. Calculate your budget using the circle-rate value whenever it is the higher of the two.

The circle rates in Delhi come from notification No. F.1(953)/Regn. Br./Div.Com./HQ/2014/5943, dated 22 September 2014 and effective from 23 September 2014, which superseded the notification of 4 December 2012. It was made under sections 27 and 47A of the Indian Stamp Act read with rule 4 of the Delhi Stamp (Prevention of Under-valuation of Instruments) Rules 2008.

That 2014 file is still what the Revenue Department serves as the category-wise circle rate schedule. It divides Delhi into categories running from A to H, with Category A carrying the highest valuation and Category H the lowest. The schedule assigns your address a category from A to H, and the minimum valuation is built from three components added together: the land rate for that category, the cost of construction for that category adjusted by an age factor, and for a flat a built-up rate by plinth area band. The Sub-Registrar calculates the figure using this schedule.

These are the land rates only. The construction cost for the category, adjusted for the age of the building, and for a flat the built-up rate for its plinth band, are added to reach the minimum valuation.

Section 47A(3) lets the Collector reopen an instrument on his own motion within two years of registration, where he believes it was under-valued. The Collector tests the valuation against the open market price rather than against the circle rate. The Explanation to section 47A defines value as the price the property would have fetched if sold in the open market on the date of execution, in the Collector's opinion, so clearing the circle rate does not by itself close the question. Under section 47A(2) the deficient duty falls on the person liable to pay it, and the Collector endorses a certificate on the instrument once it is paid. Section 47A(4) gives anyone aggrieved by that order a right of appeal to the District Court in whose jurisdiction the property sits.

Which Delhi system do I use: DORIS, NGDRS or SHCIL?

You use NGDRS 2.0 to prepare the document and book the appointment, SHCIL to buy the e-stamp that pays the duty, and DORIS only to search records from before January 2024. SHCIL, which stands for Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited, is an e-stamping agency and not a registration system.

Stamp duty in Delhi is paid by buying an e-stamp before the registration appointment. Up to Rs 500 the e-stamp is bought from an authorised vendor, and above Rs 500 through specified bank branches and SHCIL offices. SHCIL operates over 2,200 Authorised Collection Centres, including counters inside the Tis Hazari, Delhi High Court, Karkardooma, Rohini, Saket and Patiala House courts.

For registration and for booking the appointment, the current system is NGDRS 2.0, branded on the site as the Delhi Online Registration Information System, and Delhi moved onto it in January 2024. On the NGDRS portal you register, log in with an OTP, open Document Entry, and fill in the general information and the property details. The Local Governing Body is a mandatory selection among those property details, and the system will not calculate any duty until it is made. You then enter the party details for both sides and add two compulsory witnesses, after which the system calculates the stamp duty and generates a pre-registration summary PDF. The documents are uploaded and submitted, and the appointment is booked at the end of that sequence.

The Revenue Department's published Steps for Registration PDF still sets out the pre-2024 sequence, in which the e-stamp is bought first and the appointment is booked afterwards. On NGDRS the calculation and the appointment are both handled in the portal. The Revenue Department also publishes a toll free number, 1800118010, for queries.

DORIS at doris.delhigovt.nic.in still resolves, and it is where records from before January 2024 are searched. The portal splits the record search into "DORIS Period (Before Jan 2024)" and "NGDRS Period (After Jan 2024)". SRAMS was the older appointment host and srams.delhi.gov.in no longer resolves, and the stamp duty calculator at eval.delhigovt.nic.in is dead as well, though both addresses are still printed on the Revenue Department's Important Information page. Appointments and duty calculations are made on NGDRS.

How many visits to the Sub Registrar does registration take?

Registration takes a single visit to the Sub-Registrar's office, on the appointment date booked through NGDRS, and everything before it is done on the portal: the document entry, the duty calculation and the purchase of the e-stamp. Both parties attend the office in person with their identification, which may be a passport, an EPIC card, a driving licence or a PAN card. They must also bring two witnesses, each with identification of their own.

Which office you attend depends on the revenue district the property sits in. The Revenue Department's District Offices page lists 13 revenue districts, and older documents describe Delhi as having 11, because Old Delhi, Central North and Outer North came later.

Across those 13 districts there are 22 Sub-Registrar office entries, several of which house more than one numbered Sub-Registrar in the same building. The registration is completed once both parties and their witnesses attend the right Sub-Registrar's office with the pre-registration summary, the uploaded documents, the e-stamp and the fee receipts.

FAQs

What is the stamp duty on a property in Delhi?

The stamp duty proper is 3 per cent of the consideration for a man and 2 per cent on a woman's share, under Article 23 of Schedule 1-A of the Indian Stamp Act as it applies in Delhi. A municipal transfer duty is charged on top of it, at a rate that depends on the local body and, in the MCD area, on whether the value is above Rs 25 lakh. The two together are the 6 or 7 per cent a Delhi buyer is quoted.

How is the municipal transfer duty calculated in the MCD area?

In the Municipal Corporation of Delhi area the transfer duty is a surcharge on the stamp duty, charged at 3 per cent up to Rs 25 lakh and at 2 per cent on a woman's share. Above Rs 25 lakh it is 4 per cent, and 3 per cent on a woman's share. That higher rate above Rs 25 lakh took effect on 10 July 2023.

What is the registration fee for a property in Delhi?

Registration charges in Delhi are 1 per cent of the consideration value or the circle-rate value, whichever is higher, plus a Rs 100 pasting fee. There is no ceiling on the fee, so a high-value property pays 1 per cent of its whole value. A relinquishment deed, a lease, a power of attorney and a special power of attorney carry a flat fee of Rs 1,000 plus the Rs 100 pasting fee.

How do you pay stamp duty in Delhi?

Stamp duty is paid by buying an e-stamp from the Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited, up to Rs 500 from an authorised vendor and above Rs 500 through specified bank branches and SHCIL offices. The document entry, the duty calculation and the appointment are handled on the NGDRS 2.0 portal.

What happens if the property is in Delhi Cantonment?

No transfer duty is levied in Delhi Cantonment. The DMC Act excludes the Cantonment from what that Act means by Delhi, and the Cantonment Board's published tax list carries no transfer duty. A man buying there pays the 3 per cent stamp duty and the 1 per cent registration fee plus Rs 100, and that total should be confirmed with the Sub-Registrar.

How are circle rates applied to property in Delhi?

The Revenue Department calculates stamp duty and the registration fee on the consideration amount or the circle-rate value, whichever is higher. The category-wise schedule in force was notified on 22 September 2014 and divides Delhi into categories A to H.

Do women get a discount on property registration in Delhi?

A woman pays a reduced rate on both the stamp duty proper and the municipal transfer duty, and the proviso to Article 23 limits that reduction to the shares held by women. On a joint purchase the lower rate applies to her percentage of the property and the remaining share is charged at the ordinary rate.

How do you book a Sub-Registrar appointment in Delhi?

Appointments are booked on NGDRS 2.0, after you register, select the Local Governing Body, enter the property and party details, let the system calculate the duty, upload the documents and generate the pre-registration summary. The older SRAMS portal no longer resolves, though it is still printed on the Revenue Department's Important Information page.