E-stamping project will be operational from today

Punjab Information Technology Board Chairman Dr Umar Saif has announced that the e-stamping project will start working on July 1 in Lahore. His announcement came in a meeting in his office on Tuesday where he told his audience that the project would enable the public to verify high value (Rs 1000 and above) judicial and non-judicial stamp papers through an SMS sent to 80024 by receiving the name of a seller and a buyer of the stamp paper.
He said the project worth Rs 207.224 million began in collaboration with the Board of Revenue Punjab to cover the whole province after its success in Lahore. "The proposed system of e-stamping will be online and any person desirous of purchasing high value non-judicial stamp can access the system by a simple internet connection. The value of stamp duty will be calculated on the basis of data provided by the buyer such as area of land, location, covered area, commercial and residential and DC valuation tables built into the system.
The names of the buyer and the seller and the person through whom stamps are being purchased will be fed into the system along with their CNIC numbers which will be verified online from the National Database and Registration Authority database in exact time. The system is directed towards public facilitation by eliminating the hectic process of passing of Challan 32-A by the public Treasury office." He said.
He also said, "Now only computer generated a 32-A fine form with a barcode will be accepted by the designated branches of the State and the National Banks for deposition of the stamp fee."
The e-stamping system will change the century's old system of stamp papers being followed since 1867 in the Punjab," he added, but revealed that the old system had flaws with circulation of fake stamp paper in market. "Besides a number of disputes among the people, the fake stamp papers were causing a severe shortage to government receipts. But now these flaws manage to overcome with the introduction of modern technology. The next phase of the project will enable consumers to fill in the details of the property online and get the printed stamp paper from the bank directly. Moreover, all housing societies, development authorities and the Defence Housing Authorities will be linked with this online system," he added.