The Karnataka government tabled a bill in the Legislative Assembly to enhance the rate of stamp duty and to make provisions to levy stamp duty on bank guarantees, aimed at shoring up the revenue.
The bill in its statement of objects and reasons notes that -- the bill amends the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957, to enhance the rate of stamp duty in certain cases and to make a separate provision regarding levy of stamp duty on bank guarantee.
There is no extra expenditure involved in the proposed legislature measure, which seeks to hike stamp duty on legal documents such as: deeds, affidavits, mortgage deeds, powers of attorney, limited liability partnerships, and other agreements or extracts or certified copies of documents. It proposes to double the duty levied, and the hike is upto five-fold for some instruments.
For partition deeds of properties located in urban areas, it will be Rs 3,000 per share instead of the current Rs 500 for properties located outside urban limits. As per the bill the stamp duty for Agricultural properties' partitioning, it will have a stamp duty of Rs 1,000 per share, up from Rs 250.
