E-stamping project gets seal of approval

Five to seven minutes, that’s all it will now take to pay stamp duty in India. For, the Revenue Department has put its stamp of approval on an electronic stamping project which does away with stamp papers altogether. According to Revenue Department officials, a pilot e-stamping project is scheduled to kick off in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar this week. It will be replicated across the State over the next six months, they say. They also claim that Gujarat’s will be the first e-stamping project in the country and the third in the world.

Under the new system, applicants would need to pay money to authorised centres of the Stockholding Corporation of India, the agency deputed by the Central Government for the project. On making the payment, they will be handed a certificate. “The certificate will have a unique identification number, watermark and a hologram with bar code. It will also show the name of the customer, address, amount paid and the type of document. All these measures would prevent duplication and make stamp paper scams redundant. Apart from the fact that it cannot be misused, the system will make the entire process simpler and quicker,” says Gujarat Stamps Commissioner Vinay Vyasa.

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The e-stamp may be used in lieu of stamp papers in property deals, legal agreements, licenses, mortgaging, and other judicial documents that require stamp papers of Rs 100 or more as of now, he says. The same may also be produced in courts as proof of duty paid for the transactions, say Revenue Department officials.

Among other things, those who need to pay stamp duty will be able to do it irrespective of banking hours. Officials inform that completing formalities will take all of 5 to 7 minutes under the new change in the property law in India. “With the e-stamping system in place, the shortage of stamp papers would be a thing of the past,” say revenue officials.

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