The Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, has prepared a draft ‘Indian Stamp Bill, 2023’ to align it with modern stamp duty regime. Once enacted, the Bill shall replace the Indian Stamp Act, 1899.

The Indian Stamp Act, 1899 (2 of 1899) is a fiscal statute laying down the law relating to tax levied in the form of stamps on instruments recording transactions. Stamp duties are levied by the Central Government, but within the States are collected and appropriated by the concerned States in terms of provisions of Article 268 of the Constitution.

The Indian Stamp Act, 1899, a pre-Constitution Act, has been amended from time to time to enable a more modern Stamp Duty regime. However, a number of provisions contained in the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 have become redundant/ inoperative and hence, there is a need to re-orient the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. Accordingly, it has been proposed that the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 is repealed and a new legislation is enacted to reflect the present realities and objectives.

As a part of pre-legislative consultative process, the draft ‘Indian Stamp Bill, 2023’ has been uploaded on the website of ‘D/o Revenue’ [https://dor.gov.in/stamp-duty/] for inviting suggestions from public in a prescribed proforma within a period of 30 days.

PROFORMA FOR SENDING SUGGESTIONS/COMMENTS/VIEWS

S. No.	Section No. of the draft Bill	Title of the Section	Proposed modification, if any	Remarks/comments

The suggestions/ comments on the draft Bill may be shared at the following email id – sunil.kmr37[at]nic[dot]in in either MS Word (or compatible format) or machine-readable PDF format.

Stamp duty reform: Draft Indian Stamp Bill proposes repeal and replacement of old Act; public comments invited for consultation. The draft Indian Stamp Bill, 2023 proposes repeal of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 and enactment of a modernised statute to update the stamp duty regime, while preserving its fiscal character and central enactment/state appropriation framework. The Department of Revenue has published the draft and invited public suggestions in a prescribed proforma to a designated email address within the consultation period.