Finance Ministry Defers Enforcement Of Amendments To Indian Stamp Act Till July 1 [Read Notification]

The amendments, related to collection of Stamp Duty on securities, that were scheduled to come into force on April 1, 2020, will now come to force on July 1, 2020.

A Notification issued in this behalf by the Ministry of Finance states,

"In exercise of the powers conferred by section 11 of the Finance Act, 2019 (7 of 2019), the Central Government hereby makes the following amendments in the notification of the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, published in the Gazette of India vide S.O. 115 (E), dated the 8th January, 2020 namely:— In the said notification, for the words and figures "the 1st day of April 2020, the words, figures and letters "the 1st day of July 2020" shall be substituted."

Pertinently, the notification was misinterpreted to be an extension of the Financial Year on social media.

Clearing air on this issue, the Finance Ministry took to Twitter to state the there is no extension of financial year and rather, the notification related to certain amendments to the Indian Stamp Act, as mentioned above.

"It pertains to putting in place an efficient mechanism for Collection of Stamp Duty on Security Market Instruments transactions through Stock Exchanges or Clearing Corporation authorized by Stock Exchange Depositories," it said.

Notably, the amendments were earlier scheduled to come into force on January 9, 2020. However, the date was rescheduled to April 1, vide a notification issued on January 8.

Read Notification