SBP Declares BOK as E-Stamping Agent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Bank of Khyber (BoK) and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) signed an Agency Agreement in Peshawar to initiate the revolutionary e-Stamping project and designated BoK as collecting Agent for e-Stamping in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). This initiative aligns with the Government of KP’s vision of promoting digital services and ensuring ease of doing business in the province. Embracing the power of technology, citizens of KP can now obtain stamp papers effortlessly within minutes, at the click of a button, thanks to a seamless process offered by BoK. The e-Stamping project will be rolled out across the province phase wise and will enhance revenue collection while providing complete data reconciliation.
The ceremony was attended by Mr. Ahmed Rasool Bangash, Minister for Finance, Revenue, Excise, Taxation & Narcotics Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Mr. Qadir Bakhsh, Director Finance State Bank of Pakistan; Mr. Aamir Tareen, Secretary Finance Government of Khyber Pakhtunkwa; Sahibzada Ali Muhammad, Managing Director Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Board of Information Technology; Mr. Irfan Saleem Awan, acting Managing Director / CEO Bank of Khyber; Mr. Sher Muhammad, Group Head Conventional Banking BoK; Mr. Ihsan Ullah Ihsan, Group Head Remedial Assets Management BoK; Mr. Asim Bashir, Group Head Digital Banking BoK; senior officials from KP Government, State Bank of Pakistan, KP-IT Board, Board of Revenue and Bank of Khyber.
The advantages of E-Stamping system are numerous. It will not only provide convenience to the public and save time but E-Stamping will also eliminate paper and process related fraudulent practices, leakage of government revenue and will also store information in digital form to ensure transparency. The system is hassle-free and quick and prevents frauds by allowing online verification of the judicial & non-judicial stamp papers and their re-use. Moreover, in case of sale or purchase of a property, the value of stamp duty is determined through DC valuation tables based on the data of location, covered area and property type, i.e., residential or commercial. This feature helps to prevent tax pilferage and leakage of income resulting from understatement of the property value, which used to be a common practice with manual stamping. As a result of these features, a marked increase in collection of stamp duties is expected.
The process is very simple. Citizens generate Challan through web portal and then visit BOK branches to pay the relevant duty mentioned on Challan and get E-Stamp certificate on spot from the same branch.