Come September, the incorporation of companies or various regulatory filings will not be a cumbersome and time-taking exercise anymore. The government is going to start e-stamp facility that would allow corporates to deposit stamp duty electronically.
From September 12, stamp duty for various instruments including Memorandum of Association, Article of Association (or incorporation of a company) and increase in share capital, can be deposited electronically via MCA 21, an e-Governance initiative of the corporate affairs ministry, which involves modernisation and computerisation of the operations.
At present, corporates pay stamp duty to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) manually, which takes a lot of time and increases paper work for the ministry too. However, with e-stamps, efficiency would increase and nearly 100 per cent companies would be able to get incorporation done on the same day, a ministry official said. Stamp duty, a state levy, has to be paid under the Indian Stamp Act, and although the transactions of corporates with the RoCs are totally paperless and instantaneous due to MCA21, submission of paper documents is necessary where stamp duty is levied to ascertain that correct stamp duty has been paid. So even though the e-forms reach the registrar instantly, he has to wait for receipt of stamp paper documents to initiate processing that leads to delays and service delivery time becomes longer.
Electronic filing of the stamp duty will take place as follows — the rates of stamp duty for various instruments under the Companies Act, 1956, will be made available on the portal and appropriate rules will also be in-built. While making e-filings, users will have the option to buy the stamp duty through the MCA21 portal or continue using the state treasuries for buying the stamps. ICICI Bank will be the gateway of payment for those using credit cards for paying the stamp duty.
