Non-judicial stamps controlled by black marketeers
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, May 20 2011: Is there a racket dealing in selling non-judicial stamp papers in the black market.

When lower denomination stamps are not available, higher denomination stamps of the same kind are being sold at much higher rates than the actual prices.

The non-judicial stamps of denominations of ' 5 to ' 1000 are used for different purposes like signing sale deeds.

But, stamp papers of lower denominations of ' 5, ' 10 and ' 20 are not easily available while stamps of ' 50 and above denominations are sold by unlicensed stamp vendors at much higher rates.

Authority of the state Revenue Department sell the non judicial stamps through licensed vendors but many unlicensed vendors are engaged in selling the stamps in the black market.

This business is being carried out at many places, particularly in front of the Head Post Office, Imphal.

The non-judicial stamp of ' 50 denomination is being sold at ' 60 to ' 70 by these unlicensed vendors.

They also sell ' 100 denomination stamps at ' 120 to ' 130 while ' 500 denomination stamps are available at ' 550 or above.

When an inquiry to the matter was made by Hueiyen Lanpao, a non-local unlicensed vendor in front of the Imphal Head Post Office revealed that he buys the non-judicial stamps from the licensed vendors who take a commission from them.

His stall displayed postal, insurance and revenue stamps but non-judicial stamps were not displayed.

From this, it could be concluded that there is a racket behind the non-availability of non-judicial stamps of lower denominations.

The non-judicial stamps used in the state is printed at a Central government press located at Nasik in Maharashtra and state treasury offices are the authorized stockists while offices .of the Revenue Department distributes it to the public through licensed vendors on a commission basis.

Revenue Department is also the authority to issue licence to the vendors.

As per an official source, government earned a revenue of ' 3.5 crore during the year 2009-10 from selling non-judicial stamps.

The department is distributing thousands of these stamps everyday to the licensed vendors.

An official of the department believes that the non-availability of lower denomination non-judicial stamps could be due to hoarding of these stamps by licensed vendors to sell it at a higher price and make a profit.

As per government rule, these stamps are to be sold in the DC, SDO and SDC offices of the districts by licensed vendors opening a small stall.

They should also display a signboard so that people can know the place easily.

The department has ordered for purchasing lower denomination non-judicial stamps from the government press.

This would eased the problems of non-availability of these stamps, the official believed.

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