What stamp duty and registration fee apply to a MODT in Bengaluru?
Direct answer: A memorandum of deposit of title deeds is the bank's mortgage paper, not your sale deed. After the Karnataka Stamp (Amendment) Act, 2023, Article 6 charges stamp duty at 0.5 per cent of the loan, with a minimum of five hundred rupees, and the old upper cap on larger loans was removed. Registration fee is a separate line. The August 2025 notification rewrote conveyance registration, not this article in so many words, so pay the figure Kaveri assesses for the memorandum.
Verify with your lawyer: This is general guidance from public rules, not a legal opinion on your flat or site. Have your own property lawyer read the papers before you pay.
Verify with your CA: Stamp duty, registration and tax figures follow the statute as we read it. Confirm the challan for your own document before you pay.
What are the key takeaways?
- MODT duty follows the loan amount under Article 6, not the flat's guidance value.
- The 2023 amendment set that duty at 0.5 per cent, minimum five hundred rupees, without the earlier cap.
- Stamp duty and registration fee are different charges. Both can appear on one Kaveri challan.
- The sale deed's 2 per cent registration fee is a different row. Do not paste it onto the MODT.
What is a MODT, and when do you meet it?
When a bank takes the title deeds of your flat as security, the memorandum recording that deposit is an instrument under the Stamp Act. It is not the sale deed, and it does not replace registration of the sale. You usually meet it at the loan disbursement, after the sale deed is ready for the sub-registrar. The original deeds move to the bank. You should leave with a copy of the memorandum and the registration receipt.
People mix this up with the agreement of sale. That agreement is Article 5(e), covered in sale-agreement duty and registration. The MODT is Article 6. Different article, different base. Article 6 looks at the loan or debt. It does not look at the guidance value of the flat the way a conveyance does.
What did the 2023 amendment change?
Before the Karnataka Stamp (Amendment) Act, 2023, Article 6 charged a smaller percentage and, on larger loans, stopped at a cap. The amendment, notified in February 2024, raised an agreement relating to deposit of title deeds to 0.5 per cent of the loan or debt, with a minimum of five hundred rupees. On loans above ten lakh rupees the earlier maximum was removed. A law-firm note of the bill sets the old and new figures side by side. That is the duty to budget, and it scales with the loan. A larger loan pays more. There is no ceiling left to hide in.
Cess or surcharge, if the sub-registrar adds any on this article, will be on the challan. Do not invent a percentage on top of 0.5 from a conveyance table. Conveyance duty inside the city, with cess and surcharge, is a different sum, described in how sale-deed duty is built. Your CA should see both challans. They are not one bill.
What should you check on the registration fee?
Registration fee is charged under the Registration Act, not under Article 6. On 29 August 2025 the Revenue Department, by notification RD/46/MNMU/2025, substituted the conveyance rows of the fee table. From 31 August 2025 a conveyance pays 2 per cent. The notification's text, as published, rewrote Article I(4)(a) and Article III(a) of that table. It did not, in the lines we could read, rewrite a separate memorandum-of-deposit row. Older department tables had put registration of a deposit of title deeds on a smaller percentage, with a floor and a cap. Because those tables and the 2025 notification can be misread together, the only number to pay is the one Kaveri assesses when the memorandum is submitted.
Before you sign the bank's set, check three things. The loan amount on the memorandum matches the sanction. The duty is computed on that loan, at the Article 6 rate Kaveri is using. And the registration fee on the receipt is labelled as the memorandum, not quietly copied from the sale deed's 2 per cent. If the branch asks you to pay a round sum in cash outside Kaveri, stop. Duty on this document goes through the stamp system, the same way e-stamp works for the sale.
Frequently asked questions
Is MODT duty a percentage of the flat's price?
No. Article 6 uses the loan or debt. The sale deed uses the higher of price and guidance value. They are different assessments.
What is the stamp duty after the 2023 amendment?
0.5 per cent of the loan, minimum five hundred rupees, and the earlier cap on larger loans was removed. Confirm the challan, including any cess the office adds.
Did the August 2025 notification make MODT registration 2 per cent?
That notification rewrote the conveyance registration fee. Do not assume it rewrote the memorandum. Read the Kaveri fee for the document you are registering.
Who keeps the title deeds?
The bank, for the life of the loan. You keep the memorandum, the registration receipt and copies of the deeds.
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If you want these papers read against a specific flat or site, book a consultation with acre&key.
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References
Checked 28 Oct 2026.
- Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957, Article 6 (deposit of title deeds), as amended by the Karnataka Stamp (Amendment) Act, 2023: https://dpal.karnataka.gov.in/storage/pdf-files/34%20of%201957%28E%29.pdf
- JSA Prism, February 2024, setting out the Article 6 change to 0.5 per cent with the cap removed: https://www.jsalaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/JSA-Prism-Corporate-February-2024-Stamp-Duty.Final_.pdf
- Revenue Department notification RD/46/MNMU/2025, 29 August 2025, conveyance registration fee from 31 August 2025, via the Department of Stamps and Registration: https://igr.karnataka.gov.in/
This page explains public rules and processes. It isn't legal or tax advice. acre&key gives buyers advice for free.