PANAJI: To make registrations of sale deeds and other documents easier for those Goans who have acquired foreign nationality, state govt on Monday directed the sub-registrars to go ahead with registration of different types of deeds pertaining to Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and send all the details to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for scrutiny for FEMA violation.
“All such documents/deeds pertaining to FEMA regulation shall be registered in terms of the 1908 Act and a monthly report will be sent to the ED along with the copy of such documents for verification of compliance with reference to FEMA regulations,” undersecretary (law) Amir Parab said in the order.
He said that this order shall supersede all the earlier ones issued with reference to FEMA Act, 1999.
A senior officer said that there were a lot of cases where the sub-registrars were reluctant to register deeds belonging to Goans who have acquired foreign nationality and govt felt that the process to register properties should be simplified.
Now, the civil registrar-cum-sub registrars won’t be required to examine and decide on the documents falling within the ambit of FEMA regulations.
“The onus of complying with the FEMA Regulations will be upon the parties to the transactions. The text “parties to the transactions” will comprehend vendor(s), purchaser(s), vendee, confirming party(s), transferer, transferee, assigner, assignee, lesser, lessee, donor and donee and all such nomenclature used to refer to any such person(s) constituting a part of the transaction,” Parab said.
“Moreover, in the event of the party to the transaction is bearing the citizenship status as NRI/OCI/PIO/foreign national or any other category of person(s) referred to from time to time under FEMA regulations, a specific and determined averment shall be made in such document/deed declaring that the land/properties under transaction is non-agricultural and that they own responsibilities for the said averment and the transfer under consideration is in due compliance of FEMA and RBI guidelines in force at the time of registration of the document or deed and the office of the civil registrar-cum-sub registrars or registering authority won’t be held accountable for the same,” the undersecretary said.The civil registrar-cum-sub registrar won’t be responsible to examine or verify the veracity of such an amount or declaration and it won’t be an undertaking of the registering authority to examine or seek compliance of FEMA regulations by the party to the transaction, the order said.
Nevertheless, the civil registrar-cum-sub registrar shall warrant and ascertain compliance of only provisions of Indian Registration Act, 1908, and the rules made thereunder, from time to time.
