PANAJI
Goan Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cardholders can now purchase or sell properties in Goa, subject to major conditions -- they must register the property directly with the sub-registrar, should be non-agricultural land and a monthly report be mandatorily submitted to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to prevent illegal transaction, fraud or other illegality.
“…In the event that the party to the transaction is bearing the citizenship status as NRI/OCI/PIO/Foreign National or any other category of Person(s)…under FEMA regulations, a specific and determined averment shall be made in such document/declaring that the land/properties under transaction is non-agricultural and that they own responsibilities for the averment and the transfer under consideration is in due compliance of FEMA/RBI guidelines in force at the time of Registration of the concerned document or deed and the office of the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub Registrars/Registering Authority shall not be held accountable for the same,” reads the order by the Department of Law & Judiciary.
The government has also clarified that it will not hold any responsibility for the transaction as the order signed by Under Secretary Amir Parab states that the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub Registrar will not be responsible for examining and verifying the veracity/ regularity of such amount or averment/declaration.
“…and it shall not be an undertaking of the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub Registrar/ Registering Authority to examine or seek compliance of FEMA regulations by the party to the transaction concerned.
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,” it added.
With all these documents registered under the Act 1908, the law department also emphasized that a monthly report along with a copy of the documents/deeds be sent to the ED for verification on FEMA compliance.
