PEOPLE trying to register deeds, mortgages and power-of-attorney documents may face a delay, as a letter on social media, purportedly from the Board of Inland Revenue, says it does not have any of the stamps necessary, by law, for completing such transactions.
Opposition Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial-Ramdial posted a photo of a letter dated July 11, informing stakeholders of the lack of 4x4 labels/stamps.
Neither Finance Minister Colm Imbert nor Minister in the Ministry of Finance Brian Manning answered calls or WhatsApp messages to verify the contents of the letter on Friday.
The letter says transactions to be affected include deeds of conveyance/gift and mortgages, power of attorney, deed polls, bills of sale, assignment/transfer of ownership of policies, petitions to practise as an attorney-at-law, deeds of covenant, release and partial release of mortgages, and deeds that require the cancellation and transfer of stamp duty.
It said, though, documents requiring 1x4 stamps such as upstamping of mortgages, immigration security bonds and some bank documents can be processed.
The letter said the stamps were manufactured internationally and there was no estimated date on when the labels/stamps will be in stock, but the department will continue to function.
“The stamp duty sections will continue to accept work over the counter and return the payment description slips (PDS)... We continue to do assessments for those documents/deeds/instruments that require same.
“The original issued PDS must be kept with the original instruments and any supporting documentation and returned to our office when we receive the supply of labels/stamps."
The letter said any deeds /instruments that attract penalties after a PDS is generated would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
In a statement, Lutchmedial-Ramdialsaid the situation was a result of incompetence.
“It is mind boggling that a government which boasts about digitalisation, improving the ease of doing business and other grandiose 'accomplishments' which are heard of but neither seen nor felt by citizens, cannot ensure that basic supplies needed for transacting business with the public is procured in a timely manner.”
Lutchmedial-Ramdial said the implications of the situation were wide-ranging as documents for every legal transaction involving property must be submitted to BIR to be assessed for payment.
“This means that several important legal instruments cannot be processed and registered for the foreseeable future and the average citizen or person seeking to transact business linked to conveyances or mortgages in this country is simply displaced and at the mercy of the Ministry of Finance’s ineptitude.”
“The individual who has a date by which he must conclude his mortgage transaction to move into a new home might very well find himself homeless as a result of this incompetence. The elderly person who is bedridden and requires a proxy though which to do banking and other business cannot register a power of attorney to facilitate same and will face w
