The Sindh government has increased the rate of stamp duty by 50 per cent on bank loans in the budget 2016-17. Under new slabs which become effective from July 1, the duty will be 0.3 per cent on bank loans of up to Rs 500,000 against 0.2pc earlier. The levy will be Rs 1,000 on loans of up to Rs1 m, Rs 2,000 on Rs 2m, Rs 10,000 on Rs 50m and Rs 150,000 on loans of up to Rs 500m. The new finance bill has also raised stamp levy on bill of exchange, another banking document, to Rs 3 per thousand from Rs 1.5.
Stamp duty rate for bill of entry, another major customs document used for clearance of imports, has been doubled to Rs 1,000 per piece. The move is apparently aimed at compensating huge revenue losses being incurred on goods cleared through Web-Based One Customs (WeBOC), a software programme for customs clearance. At present, stamp duty is being collected on bills of entry (goods declaration) through the manual system managed by the Pakistan Revenue Automation Ltd. There is no arrangement at customs to collect stamp duty on goods cleared through WeBOC. According to an estimate, about Rs 250m is lost in revenue under this head every year.
A major change in stamp duty rates on property transactions has been made in the new finance bill. The value of property units listed in valuation table used to assess stamp duty has been increased by 20 per cent across the board from July 1. The values in the valuation table were last raised in 2010. The Board of Revenue (BoR), Sindh, has been trying for an increase in property values recorded in the table to bring them on a par with the property prices prevailing in the market.
Source: Dawn: Sindh raises stamp duty by 50per cent on bank loans
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