Banks will not sell stamp papers anymore

Now stamp papers will be available only at sub-registrar offices. Earlier nationalized banks issued stamp papers of smaller denominations and also printed the same but now selling as well as printing of stamp papers by banks will be completed stopped. The banks will only sell till they clear the stocks.

However stamp paper vending was officially stopped by banks from October. According to a letter sent to the stamps and registration department, the banks will not do fresh printing of the papers anymore.

Inspector general of registration and commissioner of stamps K R Niranjan told The Times of India, "Banks will not print stamp papers and will clear the stocks. We have made alternative arrangements to supply stamp papers at sub-registrar offices. A stamp certificate will be given for the money deposited which will act as a stamp paper till we introduce e-stamping".

After the much-hyped Telgi stamp paper scam, government authorized four banks - State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of India, State Bank of Hyderabad and Corporation Bank- to sell stamp papers in the denominations of Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100. Among these banks SBM used to sell a large number of stamp papers. These stamp papers of lesser value are used for writing agreements, affidavits and mortgage deeds.

The SBM official told, the government had requested the bank to continue to print stamp papers up to March 2009 to keep e-stamping rolling. But when the implementation got delayed, the bank was asked to continue issuing stamp papers from April to June, which was later extended till September.

The printing of stamp papers is a high security risk job so the banks require three months to print the papers.