Everything About Electronic Stamping And Its Lawful Existence In India

For buying or selling any property,paying stamp duty is a must. Without it, no transaction is finalized successfully. Earlier, people visited the sub-registrar’s bureau to pay the fee of their property registration. But, nowadays, with the evolution of digital technology, people can pay stamp duty online. The facility of Electronic Stamping, also called E-Stamping, has solved many of the property buyer’s issues. Let’s get to know everything about E Stamp Duty and how Electronic Stamp duty is paid online.

E-Stamp facility is available online in various Indian states, including Delhi, and the people of these states can pay their e-stamp duty through SHCIL. But, the people of Mumbai cannot do e-stamping. They have to pay the stamp duty through eSBTR.

What Does E-stamping Mean?

E-stamping is a process of paying the stamp duty for any property transaction online without the hassle of visiting the related office for payment. The Government inducted this facility in 2013 to streamline the procedure of payment of non-judicial stamp duty.

Besides, several news stories came to light about the scam related to the hardcopy of stamp paper. Also, to avoid those scams, the Government has decided against introducing electronic stamping in our country.

What is the importance of stamp paper?

It is required for paying the stamp duty of a property transaction. The payments are made to the authority by buying stamp papers of varied prices, as determined by the Government. Once the fee is paid, proof of your payment in the form of a receipt will be received by you. This receipt will work for you as a reference in the future.

You may think that the process is easy. However, it is not as simple as it seems. Stamp duty can be paid in three ways:

• Through electronic stamping
• Through non-judicial stamp papers
• Through Franking device

Among these, the payment process using e-stamp paper is the easiest for technologically aware people. Also, it must be noted that some extra franking charge is levied while making payment through franking devices.

Payment through Electronic Stamp in India:

As mentioned above, the payment through electronic stamps in India was started by the Indian Government in July 2013. It was created to stop different situations of counterfeits and mistakes related to e-stamp papers prevailing in India. The name of the central agency that maintains the lists of every e-stamps operation in our country is SHCIL. SHCIL is the abbreviation for “Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited.” The SHCIL has permission to do user registration, user administration, and maintain e-stamping applications and their indexes. It also provides certificates to those people who need them through  its “Authorized Collection Centres.”

E-Stamp Sample

What is the procedure for e-stamping your documents?

The Citizens of India residing in different states like Delhi NCT, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, etc., can pay through e-stamping while sitting in their homes. After payment, they can also download the electronic stamp certificates from the website and print them.

Nowadays, especially during the covid-19 crisis, the SHCIL has strictly ordered the citizens of our country to use the facility. Therefore, they should make their payment from home by visiting the website.

For e-stamping your document, you should follow the following process:

• First, enter SHCIL’s official site. Now check on the website if your state is allowing this facility or not. If it is offering the facility, then proceed.
• Choose your state from the drop-down roster. And, after that, visit the homepage.
• Now fill the application form that you can see on the site’s homepage. Then, navigate to the “downloads” option and choose your needed application. Say for instance, you choose a form where the payment of stamp duty is less than five hundred and one rupees. Then, download the application form for filling it.
• Fill up the application form.
• Now submit your filled-up application form and your fee.
• Download the stamp certificate.

What is the mode of payment for electronic stamping?

The payment for e-stamping can be made through several modes. You can opt for a cash payment. Or, you can also go for cheque payment and demand draft payment or payment through NEFT or RTGS. Besides, Pay Order payment is also acceptable. You can use cash, demand draft, or cheque for payment at any of the ACC.

Process of payment of stamp duty via internet:

• If you are new to the site of SHCIL, you must first click the ‘Register Now’ option to continue.
• Now, fill up the blank spaces with the necessary information. Select a user-id for yourself and set a password according to your choice. Now fill in the security question and then your bank details.
• Open your email account and wait for the activation link that the SHCIL will send to your email-id. After receiving it, click on the link and confirm your activation. After you give your confirmation through your email, you can access your user-id and password.
• Now, again go to the SHCIL website and log in with your user-id and password.
• Choose your province from the given drop-down box. After that, you have to choose your adjacent SHCIL branch. Then, give various important details, like, the First and Second Party Names, the amount of the Stamp Duty, the name of the person who paid stamp duty, the Article Number, etc. All this information is required for generating a Digital Reference Acknowledgement Number of a certain amount to be paid with the help of Net banking, Atm card, NEFT, FT, or RTGS.
• The citizens of India are expected to print out the above-mentioned numbered document and visit the nearby SH branch. They will get a final-printed electronic stamp certificate from there.

(It is to be noted that the citizens have to pay the original payment gateway fees).

What is the process of assessing an electronic stamp?

For verifying an electronic stamp, you have to go to the homepage of the website. Then, click on the option, “Verify e-stamp.” Now, a page will open. There you fill-up the information about your state, certificate no, stamp duty’s type, the issue date, and the session ID. After that, tap on “Verify.”

Miscellaneous information about electronic stamping:

• You will always get only one copy of an electronic stamp certificate. So in case you lose it, there is no chance to get a duplicate certificate of it.
• If you cancel an electronic stamp request, then you will get back your money. But, you will get it only after you visit a SHCIL office for your refund.

Some recent data on electronic stamping:

Electronic stamping is very soon going to take the place of Franking in Karnataka:

If everything goes according to the Karnataka authority’s plan, then, soon, e-stamping will replace franking there. So, it can be foreseen that the documents’ franking will soon come to an end at that place. As every applicant is given a different certificate no. in electronic stamping, forgery is not an  option in such a case. The Government of Karnataka thinks that the state will gain higher revenue if the errors can be fixed with the implementation of e-stamping.

The e-stamping in Trivandrum is paused for some time:

Trivandrum has previously planned to implement e-stamping in its province. But, due to problems raised by hasty enforcement of the process, the related authority has put the plan on hold. But, it is expected that soon the authority will restart the implementation of the process. Thus, the Government of Trivandrum has a plan to fully migrate the method of payment of stamp duty into e-stamping from the other systems.

Gujarat Government is increasing the providers of electronic stamping:

The Gujarat authorities are trying their best to increase the providers of e-stamping in the state. They are trying to add more e-stamping centres to deal with the issue of Artificial Intelligence. Though many e-stamping dealers and notaries spread across the state, some centres must be added to the state. This will solve the problem of AI regarding e-stamping in the state, according to the Gujarat government. Besides, the related authority is also deciding to enhance the number: of e-stamping vendors in the state. Moreover, they have also permitted the people of Gujarat to file for e-stamping according to their convenience. They can apply for electronic stamping on a holiday as well as on a weekday.

Electronic stamping is saving various expenses and assisting the authorities of Jammu and Kashmir:

As informed by the IGR of J&K, electronic stamping has saved nearly thirty-five crore rupees from the year 2020 till now. This amount was previously paid on stamp paper printing, fill-up of the leakages, etc. But, electronic stamping has saved all these expenses now.

How expensive is electronic stamping?

Electronic stamping is not very expensive. However, if you buy stamp paper physically, you may have to purchase a stamp paper of higher value because of the shortage of lower value stamp paper. Besides, an extra service charge is also charged by the bank from the buyer. But, with e-stamping, you don’t have to pay such additional prices. Besides, you will get the stamp certificate for your payment of stamp duty in two functional days. After that, you will get it through courier. Moreover, your registration on the SHCIL website is also totally free.

What are the benefits of electronic stamps?

Electronic stamps have many advantages. They are:

• E-stamps can be produced within a short time.
• They are leakage-proof, and SHCIL protects every kind of data.
• They are authentic, and their genuineness can be checked over internet with the help of the inquiry module of the site because each electronic stamp produces a unique id number.
• They are paperless documents. With e-stamping, one can go paperless. In earlier times, people used to face the problem of a shortage of physical stamp papers. They used to return home empty-handed many times. But, with e-stamp papers, the problem has been solved now. As e-stamp papers are electronic, there is no chance of any paper shortage for paying stamp duty. Thus, with the paperless e-stamps, it is now very easy to buy and sell possessions and register in numerous insurance corporations. With an electronic stamping facility, one can easily get his/her papers ratified and accepted when and wherever required.

Conclusion

So, from the above-mentioned information, we can conclude that electronic stamping is an effective way of paying stamp duty for any property transaction. And, the best part of it is that you can do it from the comfort of your dwelling. Thus, it saves the cost of the Government and saves your cost of transportation and other charges. Not only that, but the process is also time-saving. So, why stand in long queues? Click on the Government e-stamping website to enjoy a hassle-free payment of stamp duty.

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