Khattar flayed over stamp duty hike

Chandigarh, Sep 19: Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala has demanded immediate withdrawal of "steep hike" in 65 types of stamp duty services in Haryana.

He said recently "massive hike" has been effected in agreement deed, power of attorney and partnership deed.

"By effecting massive hike in the stamp duty rates for 65 types of deeds, the Khattar government has tried to break the backbone of the common people who are already reeling under the everyday increasing prices of essential commodities," Surjewala said.

This, the MLA from Kaithal claimed, was due to fallacious policies of the BJP governments at the state and the Centre.

Notably, the Indian Stamp (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2018 was passed by the state Assembly recently to revise the rates of stamp duty of small denominations fixed since 1967.

Surjewala said the Khattar government has imposed a massive 267 per cent increase in partnership deed stamp duty while increasing it from Rs 3.75 to Rs 1,000 and 889 per cent increase in stamp duty for agreement deeds by increasing it from Rs 2.25 to Rs 2,000.

"Similarly, the stamp duty for power of attorney has been increased by 333 per cent by increasing this duty from Rs 300 to Rs 1,000. For power of attorney, a person will now have to shell out Rs 100 instead of Rs 37.50," he pointed out.

Surjewala said earlier one had to purchase Rs 15 stamp paper for executing various types of agreements, which has now been increased to Rs 100 by the state government.

"Agreement deed fee has also been increased from Rs 15 to Rs 100. In this manner, an increase in stamp duty up to Rs 1997.75 has been made for executing various types of agreement and stamp duty related services," he claimed.

Surjewala said that fee for obtaining arms license has been increased from Rs 60 to Rs 1,500 for each weapon.

"These anti-people decisions are the clear proof that this regime has always been on the lookout to devise ways to snatch money from the pocket of the common man," he said.

"While on the one side, the people of the state were already suffering immensely on account of steep price rise and now the people would be forced to pay hefty fee for executing various deeds entailing stamp duty," Surjewala added.