Gandhinagar: Gujarat is making some changes to the rules about “stamp duty.” Stamp duty is basically a tax you pay to the government when you make certain legal transactions, like buying a house or making an agreement. The Gujarat Stamp (Amendment) Bill, 2025, will change the Gujarat Stamp Act of 1958.

key changes:

• Deals involving companies: The new rules will clarify how stamp duty is applied to orders from the High Court or the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) related to company mergers, takeovers, or restructuring. It also includes agreements to take over a company by buying its shares.

• Copies of documents: If the original document is not available, a copy, extract, or photocopy can be considered as the original for stamp duty purposes. However, if proper stamp duty wasn’t paid on the original, it must be paid on the copy.

• More documents included: The changes add more types of documents to the list that require stamp duty, such as agreements, sale certificates, exchange deeds, gift deeds, leases, mortgages, and power of attorney documents.

• Payment of stamp duty by certain organizations: The government can order certain organizations (like government-run bodies or financial institutions) to ensure stamp duty is paid through a method approved by the government. These organizations must also authorize someone to issue receipts and endorse these documents.

• Time limit for stamping documents: If a document relates to company mergers or restructuring, it must be stamped within 60 days from the date of the court or authority order.

• BOT projects: In Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects, the contractor who wins the project will be responsible for paying the stamp duty.

• Deadlines and penalties: The time allowed to present a document for a decision has changed. Also, the amount of penalty for not paying stamp duty on time has been increased.

• Collector’s powers: If there is a problem with the stamp duty paid on a document copy, the Collector (a government official) can ask for the original document. If the original is not provided, the Collector can take action to recover the due stamp duty and penalty.

In essence, these amendments aim to update and clarify the rules around stamp duty in Gujarat, ensuring that it’s paid correctly and on time for various transactions. DeshGujarat