LAHORE: The Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Board of Revenue (BoR) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the implementation of e-Stamping System in the province, a statement said.

PITB chairman Azfar Manzoor, senior member KP Board of Revenue Syed Zafar Ali Shah and KP additional secretary finance Ammara Khan signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organisations.

PITB’s e-Governance director-general Sajid Latif, director Hammad Hassan Hamdani and representatives from KP, including Land Record KP director Mushtaq Hussain and e-Stamping KP project director Shabbir Ahmed and other senior officials were also present on the occasion.

Azfar Manzoor said: “PITB’s flagship project e-Stamping has achieved remarkable results across Punjab since its launch. A total of Rs244 billion of revenue has been collected through e-Stamping System in Punjab to-date.”

He also said PITB’s e-stamping system has revolutionised the traditional system and digitalised the process of issuance of stamp paper for the convenience of the citizens.

“Digitalising the issuance of stamp paper in KP will increase the revenue and bring transparency,” he added.

Zafar Ali Shah said that fraud, financial theft and forgery, which were common in the past, would now be eliminated through this system.

“The old system of obtaining stamp paper in KP will be replaced with a modern tech-driven system. Implementing a modern system in the province with the help of PITB will bring transparency and eliminate corruption,” he said.

Earlier, PITB had also signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Sindh in the same spirit and e-Stamping implementation is now in progress in the province.

The collection of stamp duty has been a major source of revenue for the government of Punjab. The centuries old process had major issues pertaining to citizens’ facilitation such as leakage of revenue through fake and fraudulent practices.

The e-Stamping System has radically transformed the traditional procedure of stamp issuance, minimising the duration of issuance from two to three days to only 15 minutes.