SLBC seeks waiver

State-Level Banker's Committee (SLBC) of Gujarat has approached the state government to waive the stamp duty on the bank mortgage documentation damaged in the Surat flood.

Talking to Business Standard, Puroshottam Kumar, General Manager of Dena Bank and convener of SLBC, said, "We have approached the state government to waive the stamp duty charges on re-execution of bank's security documentation of the loans".

During February this year, the SLBC approached the state government with this issue.

"We have met the Joint Secretary, Finance department, M K Verma and he has promised us that the issue will be taken up with revenue department," informed Kumar. SLBC hopes to have a decision on this issue within the next three months.

Approximately, 3,000 mortgage documents of the Bank of Baroda (BOB) and State Bank of India (SBI) were damaged in the floods in Surat last year that . The both banks have also taken up this issue with the state government in their individual capacity. Last year, Surat faced a unprecedented level of flood in the month of August.

The customers of the bank who have lost their mortgage documents in the last year flood are not in a mood to bear the cost of stamp duty which they have already paid before the flood. This has put banks in a fix as if stamp duty is not waived than banks will have to bear the burden of the duty.

With increasing exposure of public sector banks in retail and housing loan segment the stamp duty has become a critical component for both customers and as well as for the banks.