A
BILL
further to amend the
Stamp Act, 1899.
Whereas it is
expedient further to amend the Stamp Act, 1899 (II of 1899) for purposes
hereinafter appearing; It is enacted as follows:
1.
Short title
and commencement.– (1) This Act may be cited as the Stamp ( Amendment)
Act 2015.
(2) It shall
come into force on such date as the Government may, by notification, appoint
and different dates may be appointed for coming into force of the provisions of
this Act in different local areas.
2.
Amendment in
section 2 of Act II of 1899.– In
the Stamp Act, 1899 (II of 1899), hereinafter referred to as the said Act, in
section 2:
(a)
for clause (11), the following shall be substituted:
“(11) “duly
stamped” means affixation of an adhesive or impressed stamp or e-stamp of not
less than the requisite amount and that the stamp has been legally affixed,
used or electronically generated;”
(b)
after clause (11),
the following clause (11A) shall be inserted:
“(11A)
“e-stamp” means a paper printed or partially printed containing a bar code or
having any of its unique identification
code and such other information, as may be specified by the rules, to be
generated and printed, on deposit of money equivalent to chargeable stamp duty
in the account of the Government;”
(c)
for clause (13), the following shall be substituted:
“(13) “impressed stamp” includes– (a) the
label affixed and impressed by the proper officer;
(b) the
stamp embossed or engraved on a stamp paper; and (c) an e-stamp.”;
and
(d) in clause
(14), after the word “recorded”, the words “and includes any instrument
executed in electronic form” shall be inserted.
3.
Amendment in
section 10 of Act II of 1899.– In the said Act, in section 10:
(a)
in subsection (1), after the word “stamps”, the words
“or e-stamps” shall be inserted; and
(b)
in subsection (2), in clause (a), after the word
“stamps”, the words “or estamps” shall be inserted.
4.
Insertion of
section 32A in Act II of 1899.– After section 32, the following section 32A shall be inserted:
“32A. Certificate of designated officer.– An
officer designated by the Government shall, by notification in the official
Gazette, issue a certificate as to genuineness or otherwise of an e-stamp for
the purpose of evidence in a legal proceedings.” STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS
Under the existing provisions
of the Stamp Act, 1899, all duties with which any instruments are chargeable
are indicated as stamps. The rates of stamp duty on instruments are given in
Schedule I to the Act. Stamps under the Act are of two types namely adhesive
stamps and impressed stamps. These are non-judicial stamps. Judicial stamps are
used for payment of court fee under the Court Fee Act, 1870. It has been
observed that leakages in stamp duty result due to availability and use of fake
stamps prepared by criminals. The Electronic Transactions Ordinance, 2002,
inter alia, provides that notwithstanding anything contained in the Stamp Act,
1899, for a period of two years from the date of commencement of this Ordinance
or till the time the Provincial Governments devise and implement appropriate measures
for payment and recovery of stamp duty through electronic means, whichever is
later, stamp duty shall not be payable in respect of any instrument executed in
electronic form. Therefore, in order to cope with leakages of stamp duty
through use of fake stamp papers and also to facilitating public at large, the
Government has decided to launch e-stamping under which electronically
generated stamp paper will be issued to the public after deposit of amount of
proper stamp duty in banks authorized by Government. Initially, only
nonjudicial e-stamps will be issued on paper of good quality, bar coded with
security features and containing unique ID of parties to the instrument. The
scheme will be introduced through pilot projects in a few districts of the Punjab.
In view of the forgoing details, amendments are required to be brought about in
the Stamps Act, 1899. Hence this Bill.
MINISTER INCHARGE
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