DERA GHAZI KHAN-Stamp paper vendors are overcharge the people due to shortage of non-judicial stamp papers in the district as the government could not provide the papers for the current year yet.
The acute shortage of stamp papers has affected the routine matters in all the courts in DG Khan, Kot Chutta and Taunsa Sharif. In district courts DG Khan, a large number of citizens complained that the stamp papers worth Rs50 and Rs100 were being sold at Rs200 and Rs400 respectively.
Advocate Shahid Nawaz Buzdar told The Nation that foolscap size papers having revenue stamp of specific value such as Rs20, Rs50, Rs100 and Rs500 are important legal papers for transactions like buying, selling or renting of a property.
“Stamp paper is also used for giving power of attorney or doing any type of agreements containing financial deals, contracts, affidavits, declaration etc,” he added.
Shahid said daily hundreds of people come to the district courts to make documents such as domiciles, sale deeds, undertakings for college certificates, birth and death certificates, marriage certificates, Zakat declarations and various affidavits but they have to pay extra money for getting stamp papers.
“Two hours have passed but I could not find a single stamp paper of Rs50. If some stamp paper vendor has it, he is demanding three times extra amount, that I cannot pay. I want to make my daughter’s domicile but all in vain,” said a citizen said.
A stamp paper vendor, on condition of anonymity, said that artificial shortage had been created by the vendors and staff of district treasury office to earn more and more money. This malpractice continued for the last two months but no one has taken notice of it, he added.
When contacted, Deputy District treasury officer Hafeezullah said that last time, the stamp paper worth Rs50 was delivered to 43 registered stamp paper vendors of tehsil DG Khan and Kot Chutta on 25th of January 2018, and likewise stamp papers of Rs100 value were delivered on 12 February 2018.
Hafeez claimed that he had submitted annual indent for year 2018-19 to Board of Revenue Lahore on 8 September 2017. Almost district annual demand of stamp papers of value Rs20 is 2,000, stamp paper Rs50 is Rs150,000 and stamp paper Rs100 is Rs50000 worth about Rs12.54 million. The supply is not being made at the end of Chief Controller of Stamp paper office Karachi, he said. He hoped that acute shortage would end very soon.