The Muslim Marriage and Divorce (Registration) Rules, 2009 has been amended by increasing the fees for marriage and divorce registration in Bangladesh.
The license fees and annual fees of the Nikah registrar (kazi) have also been increased following the amendment to the Rules.
Law and Justice Division of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs issued a gazette notification in this regard recently. The ministry amended the ‘Muslim Marriage and Divorce (Registration) Rules, 2009’ under the power given in the ‘Muslim Marriages and Divorces (Registration) Act, 1974.’
An official of the ministry on Tuesday (January 3) said that the Law and Justice Division issued the gazette notification over amendment to the Rules in December last.
According to the updated Muslim Marriage and Divorce (Registration) Rules, now a Nikah registrar can collect marriage registration fee at the rate of Tk 14 for every Tk. 1000 of dowry or part thereof in case of dowry up to Tk. 5 lakh. If the amount of dowry is more than Tk. 5 lakh, the Nikah registrar can collect marriage registration fee of Tk. 100 for every one lakh taka of dowry or part thereof, but whatever the amount of dowry, the fee will not be less than Tk. 200.
Earlier, in case of dowry up to Tk. 4 lakh, the Nikah registrar could collect marriage registration fee at the rate of Tk. 12.50 for every Tk. 1000 dowry or its special part.
A Nikah registrar could charge a fee of Tk. 500 for registering a divorce. Now it has increased to Tk. 1000.
Nikah registrar’s license fee has been increased from Tk. 10,000 to Tk. 20,000 in city corporation area, while the license fee has been increased from Tk. 2,000 to Tk. 4,000 in municipal areas located in the district headquarters, and Tk. 1400 from Tk. 700 in municipal areas outside the district headquarters and from Tk. 1,000 from Tk. 500 in Union Parishad areas.
Now a licensed Muslim Nikah registrar has to pay an annual fee of Tk. 10,000 in case of city corporation area, Tk. 2,000 in case of municipal area located in district headquarters, Tk. 1,000 in case of municipal area outside district headquarters and Tk. 200 in case of union parishad areas to the government by March 31 of every year. Earlier, this fee was Tk. 5,000, Tk. 1,000, Tk. 500 and Tk. 100 respectively.
Besides, from now the marriage registration fee collected by the Nikah registrar has to submitted to the government by July 15 of the next financial year at the new rate. In this case, the fee is Tk. 16,000 against each ward in the city corporation area. Earlier it was Tk. 20,000 against each ward in Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet City Corporation areas and Tk. 8,000 against each ward in other city corporations.
Besides, this fee has increased from Tk. 2,000 to Tk. 4,000 against each area of the municipality and from Tk. 1,000 to 2,000 against each union parishad.
