Revenue stamp shortag puts extra burden on Chitralis

CHITRAL: The unavailability of judicial revenue stamps of small denominations of Rs30, Rs50 and Rs100 has put extra financial burden on people as they have to purchase the stamp of the next denomination of Rs300.

The stamp vendors have also threatened to go on a strike if the government did not make available the stamps of small denominations in a week.

The president of stamp vendors association, Chitral, Sarwar Khan said that stamps had started running out in the district six months ago and the stock completely exhausted in the district accounts office two months ago.

He said due to non-availability of stamps of small denominations the people had to purchase the stamps of Rs300 denomination for making simple affidavits.

When contacted, district accounts officer Zulqarnain Qureshi said he had written a demand letter to the assistant secretary (stamps), Board of Revenue, on Dec 4, last year, followed by five reminders, but to no avail.

He said fake stamps had been to circulating in the market, forcing assistant commissioner Chitral to order an inquiry.

An official in the office of assistant secretary (stamps) in BoR, said they had forwarded the demand letter to the office of chief controller of stamps, Karachi, who had yet to respond.

Interestingly, the chief controller stamps put the responsibility on the printing corporation for not printing the judicial revenue stamps of small denominations on time.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2019