How to Pay Stamp Duty

Stamp duties payable on various kinds of documents are governed by the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. In the State of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, in respect of documents falling under any of the descriptions as given in the Schedule I A stamp duty has to be paid as prescribed in that Schedule. Owing to certain untoward incidents in printing and distribution of stamp papers, the State has restricted the use of Non-Judicial stamp papers up to Rs. 100/- denomination only and introduced a system of payment of cash towards remaining stamp duty, transfer duty, registration fees and user charges by means of challans.

Challan system:

In this system, each Sub Registrar's Office has been attached with a designated branch of State Bank of India or State Bank of Hyderabad or any other Nationalized Bank. Parties have to get their documents prepared on stamp papers of Rs.100/- denomination or less, by using at least one stamp paper and not more than ten and if necessary use as many number of white papers of good quality as may be required. Then they may consult the Sub – Registrar in whose office the document is going to be registered to – 1) Ascertain the amounts of the remaining stamp duty, transfer duty, registration fees and user charges payable through challan; 2) Obtain challan form and fill it up (in triplicate) if necessary with the guidance of the Sub Registrar or his staff; Then the parties should remit the amounts into the designated branch of the Bank. The Bank authorities will return a copy of the challan to the remitter along with a Receipt for the total amounts paid in to the Bank with unique Serial Number assigned to it. The parties have to enclose the copy of the challan returned to them and the receipts issued by the Bank to the document and present the same before the Sub- Registrar for registration. Both the copy of the challan and the receipt will be retained by the Sub Registrar's Office and an endorsement will be made on the document indicating the amounts paid towards stamp duty etc. The endorsement made on the document is a conclusive proof of such payments.

The following points shall be kept in view:

• Payment of Stamp duty, etc should be through a separate challan for each document
• Normally a challan can be used up to four months only from the date of payment. However, in cases of delay with satisfactory reasons, the Sub Registrar may entertain the challan up to one year and if the delay exceeds one year permission of the District Registrar is necessary.
• In case the transaction is failed, claim for refund of the amounts paid through challan has to be preferred within three months from the date of payment, which may be allowed after deducting 10% in the duty paid. Deduction will be 20% in respect of the claims made after three months but before expiry of four months. There will be no refund, if claimed after four months.
• Correct preparation of challans indicating SRO code, Account Number, Amounts against relevant columns in figures and the total amount in words etc, shall be ensured by the parties concerned.

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