Vijayawada: Stamp vendors create scarcity for profits

Vijayawada: Despite having the option to check the indiscriminate sale of stamps, the AP stamps and registration department didn't allow the circular released two years ago to turn into a reality. As a result, the citizens who are in need of stamps are running from pillar to post to purchase stamps in black market. According to the GO, around 70 Mee Seva centres in the Capital city alone can be given permission for sale of stamps. However, pleas of Mee Seva centres have been reportedly turned down by the stamps and registrations department and the public are finding it difficult to get the stamps from the existing vendors.

A circular issued on August 20, 2011, in the combined state has communicated to all the district registrars that a review was carried out on the licensing system of stamps, in view of the public convenience and to streamline the sale of stamps.The modified instructions issued by the then Commissioner and Inspector General (Stamps & Registrations) K. Madhusudana Rao mentioned about the minimum education qualification as SSC, for granting of stamp vendor licences. Accordingly, for granting of licences to vend stamps through franking machines, passing SSC examination was made mandatory for the existing stamp vendors.

Licence can be granted to those stamp vendors, having at least two years of vending licence, as per the circular. The value of sales by the stamp vendor in the previous two years shall not be less than '1 lakh, the circular stated. However, this circular was not honoured subsequently in any of the districts, and the Mee Seva organisers approached the Stamps and Registrations department, for implementation of the circular in 2016, as it allows them to vend stamps through franking machines.

The Mee Seva organisers have been urging the authorities to provide them an option to sell the stamps through franking machines, as it would be a transparent system, wherein there would be no involvement of black marketeers.