No revenue stamps at city post offices

Times of India: Gurgaon: Sunday, 22 February 2015.

Residents are finding it difficult to get hold of revenue stamps following the Haryana government's decision to not have them sold at post offices.

The government says it discontinued sale of revenue stamps at post offices because the postal department charges a 10% commission on every revenue stamp sold. So, while elsewhere in the country one can buy revenue stamps from any post office, in Gurgaon one has to go all the way to the mini secretariat to buy the Re 1 stamp.

Residents say that in order to buy a Re 1 stamp they have to shell out much more money just to reach the mini secretariat. "It is mandated by law to affix a revenue stamp for every cash transaction that is over Rs 5,000. There are about 36 post offices in Gurgaon but none of them sell revenue stamp which causes lot of inconvenience to the general public as they have to travel a long distance to get the stamp," said Aseem Takyar, who filed a Right To Information application on the issue.

He said the issue could be resolved if the state government wanted to. "All it needs to do is agree to pay the commission sought by the postal department like every other state in the country that has agreed to do so," Takyar said.

"I filed the RTI in the postal department in Delhi and they in turn forwarded it to several postal offices in the country. Recently, I received over 500 replies from different post offices and all of them maintained that they received 10% commission from their respective state government for every revenue stamp sold," he said.

Takyar said the Haryana government's response said that it stopped selling revenue stamps at post offices in the state from 2007 because the department charges 10% commission. "This is something which these two government departments should sort out so that the common man is spared the harassment," he pointed out.

Other residents too demanded that this issue be resolved. "I went to the post office in Uydog Vihar the other day to get a revenue stamp but was curtly asked to go to the court complex in the mini secretariat to get it," said Kavita Sharma, a Palam Vihar resident.