The Amendment to Indian Stamp Act, 1899 – New Rule

Latesh Shah 30 Mar 2020 4,749 Views 0 comment Print Corporate Law | Articles

Stamp duty is a kind of tax collected by the state government under the Section 3 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. The stamp duty rates depend upon the type of the documents, contracts, assets, transactions value, tenure and gender and so on. For example, the stamp duty rate for transfer of property will be different from then the one charged in security transfer.

Ministry of Finance has issued the notification dated December 10, 2019, vide exercising their powers given under the Section 73A of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 to regulate the liability of instruments on the transaction in stock exchanges and depositories to duty.

The central government has issued the Indian Stamp (Collection of Stamp- Duty through Stock Exchanges, Clearing Corporations and Depositories) Rules, 2019 which shall be effective from April 1, 2020.

Page Contents

What is the rate of the Rate of the stamp duty?
Who is liable to pay Stamp Duty?
Who will collect the Stamp duty?
What is the Stamp Duty collection mechanism?

What is the rate of the Rate of the stamp duty?

Sr. No	Nature of Instrument	Nature of Transaction	Rate of Stamp Duty
Sr. No	Nature of Instrument	Nature of Transaction	Pre-Amendment	Post -Amendment
1.	Debentures	Issuance of Securities	0.05% per year up to a maximum of 0.25% or INR 2.5milion, whichever is lower	0.005%
2.	Security (other than debenture)	Issuance of Securities	currently the issuance is charged as per State Schedule, which is generally at 0.1%	0.005%
3.	Debentures	Transfer of dematerialized Securities between beneficial owners	Exempt	0.0001%
4.	Security (other than debenture)	Transfer of dematerialized Securities between beneficial owners	Exempt	(i) on delivery basis –0.015% (ii) on non-delivery basis –0.003%
5.	Derivatives	Futures	Various stamp rate in different states for ex: Maharashtra – 0.002% Delhi – 0.002%	0.002%
		Options	Various stamp rate in different states for ex: Maharashtra – 0.002% Delhi – 0.002%	0.003%
		Currency and interest rate derivatives	Various stamp rate in different states for ex: Maharashtra – 0.002% Delhi – 0.002%0.0002%	0.001%
		Other derivatives	Various stamp rate in different states for ex: Maharashtra – 0.001% Delhi – 0.001%	0.002%
6.	Government securities		Not available	0%
7.	Repo on corporate bonds		Not available	0.00001%

Who is liable to pay Stamp Duty?

Sr. No	Transaction	Payable by
1.	Sale of security through stock exchange	Buyer
2.	Sale of security otherwise than through a stock exchange	Seller
3.	Transfer of security through a depository	Transferor
4.	Transfer of security otherwise than through a stock exchange or depository	Transferor
5.	Issue of security whether through a stock exchange or depository or otherwise	Issuer
6.	In any other case	By person making, drawing or executing such instrument

Who will collect the Stamp duty?

Sr. No	Transaction	Collecting Authority
1.	On sale of any securities made through a stock exchange	Stock exchange or clearing corporation appointed by it
2.	On transfer of securities for consideration made by a depository otherwise than on the basis of any transaction referred to above	Depository
3.	On issue of securities leading to creation or change in the records of depository	Depository

What is the Stamp Duty collection mechanism?

Sr.No	Transaction	Collection Mechanism
1.	For sale of any securities through the stock exchange, including sale of any listed units of any registered pooled arrangements or scheme or tripartite repo,	(i) Stamp duty shall be collected on the settlement day; (ii) For transactions reported to a stock exchange, the stamp duty shall be collected on the entire sale consideration when the transfer is reported, even if the consideration is paid in part or in instalments to be paid in future; (iii) The sale consideration reported to a stock exchange shall be considered as the actual sale value; (iv) In case of interoperability of clearing corporations, the trades of a client across the stock exchanges shall be considered for determining whether they would result in a delivery or not.
2.	For transfer of securities for consideration made by a depository otherwise than through a stock exchange	(i) Stamp duty has to be collected before execution of all off-market transfers involving transfer of securities in the depository system, including over-the counter trades occurring in dematerialised or electronic form; (ii) In case of transfer of securities pursuant to invocation of pledge, duty shall be collected from the pledgee on the market value of securities.
3.	On issue of securities leading to creation or change in the records of depository	(i) Stamp duty shall be collected from the issuer before executing any transaction in the depository system; (ii) Stamp duty shall not be collected on creation or destruction of securities on account of corporate actions such as stock split, consolidation, mergers and acquisitions, etc. Provided there is fresh issue to an investor as part of a corporate action, such issuance shall be subject to stamp duty;