Ranchi, April 27: The cumbersome process of procuring stamp papers is all set to get simple. The state registration department has mooted a plan to introduce e-stamping.

Under this, the registration department would provide a licence to the Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited, which is armed with a software for e-stamping to operate through a state and district-specific code.

“State registration department would provide specific codes for user name and password, and more importantly a recharge card of certain value to Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited. Authorised vendors, banks and post offices among others would be issued licences there of so as to allow them to inscribe value of particular denomination on the first page of property transaction documents,” said Muhammad Yousuf, the assistant inspector-general of the registration department.

As of now, the department has decided to introduce the facility for property transaction that requires over Rs 5,000-value stamp papers.

The licensee stamp vendors would be allowed to continue dealing in stamp papers of lower denominations.

If the plan gets approved and implemented, both the government and the people would benefit at large. People will no longer have to wait for weeks to get higher value stamp papers.

Moreover, the lengthy process of first depositing money and then getting a challan from bank and applying to the district treasury office would be done away with.

Apart from this, the government exchequer would benefit in more ways than one.

At present, special teams constituted by the Ranchi district administration happen to be the custodian of the central treasury of the state.

They visit the government of India press in Nasik and Hyderabad to purchase non-judicial stamp papers of lower and higher denominations. The process is, however, a lengthy one.

Once the e-process is incepted, the government would save over Rs 100 crore per annum in purchasing stamp papers.

For, the government has nothing to pay except nominal outsourcing fee of less then 1 per cent to Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited and almost the same amount of commission to operating stamp vendors, banks and post offices, which would provide e-stamping services.

At present, the rate of commission given to stamp vendors, who are liable to deal only in lower denomination stamp papers of Rs 5,000 value maximum, is 6 per cent.