The amendments to the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, introduced by the Finance Act, 2019, are effective from July 1, 2020.

These amendments provide uniform stamp duty rates across all States on instruments of transaction in stock exchanges and depositories and seek to streamline the payment procedures. Also, the stamp duty rate leviable on the transfer of shares in physical form has been reduced from 0.25% to 0.015%.

These amendments will help to reduce the transaction costs in the securities market by rationalizing the stamp duty rates.