period. The initiative provided a basis for more thorough modernization of land administration in Maharashtra and was copied by other states that had suffered from similar problems to a lesser extent.

# **2.3 Computerization of land registries in Andhra Pradesh**

Following the model of Maharashtra, a program for _C_ omputer- _A_ ssisted _R_ egistration of _D_ eeds, referred to as CARD, was introduced in Andhra Pradesh from the late 1990s. It comprised three elements, namely (i) streamlining of registration procedures to be followed in registration of property transactions at any of the state’s 387 SROs; (ii) automatic property valuation to eliminate officials’ discretion in setting fees; and (iii) digitization of all ECs from 1983 as well as making these and other key documents such market valuations and deed extracts available online to allow anybody to easily verify claims regarding property values and ownership. Contrary to Maharashtra where the scheme was implemented within one year, computerized registration was rolled out to cover all of the state’s 387 SROs, starting with those having the highest transaction volume. Figure 1 illustrates the roll-out of SRO computerization, indicating that 54% of SROs were computerized in February 1999, 12% in November 2001, and the remainder in March 2005. In 2005, i.e. after computerization had been completed, stamp duty rates were adjusted throughout the state. The most significant reduction was from 13% or 11% for sales in urban or rural areas, respectively, to 9% and from 3% to 1% for gifts, partitions, and inheritances within the same family. Rates for registering mortgages remained unchanged throughout the period.

Although CARD signified an improvement over the earlier situation, three shortcomings are generally noted, namely (i) lack of a spatial framework combined with a unique parcel identifier that would allow easy retrieval of all registered transactions for a given physical parcel; (ii) the continued need, even for banks, to rely on the services of professional lawyers to check on the quality of the information recorded in individual deeds due to lack of standardization; and (iii) limited outreach and coverage, especially in rural areas where land records continue to be more popular, due to failure to integrate registration with traditional land records and thus ensure automatic synchronization of records in case of changes to one of them. It thus allows us to test the extent to which reforms that improve the functioning of a registry system without radically changing the quality of the underlying information affects economic outcomes.

As computerization affects the cost involved in accessing property information and registering transfers rather than the security or nature of the underlying rights, we do not expect it to affect land-related investment but rather credit supply and the number of registered transactions. One main interest is to ascertain the extent to which computerization-induced transaction cost reductions increased credit supply. Also, improved governance and reduced transaction costs may have made it worthwhile to conduct or register transactions that had not been undertaken or registered earlier, implying that we would expect to see an impact of CARD on the volume of registered transactions. The ability to compare the impact of 8