India 1870 Court Fees overprinted on used pair of 8a Telegraph stamp

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

has been a heavy user of

revenue stamp A revenue stamp, tax stamp, duty stamp or fiscal stamp is a (usually) adhesive label used to designate collected taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, ...

s, both before and after independence. The first revenues were issued in the mid-nineteenth century and they are still being issued to this day. Apart from issues for the whole of India, many princely states, provinces and other states also had or still have their own revenue stamp issues.Barefoot, John. ''British Commonwealth Revenues''. 9th edition. York: J. Barefoot, 2012, pp. 169-211.

Before independence

Before independence, Indian revenue stamps were closely modelled on similar designs from Great Britain, often using a key type design. Key types were used for several types of revenue, including: *Agreement *Broker's Note *Consular *Custodian's Fee *Entertainments (special issues for Bengal, Bombay and the United Provinces) *Foreign Bill *High Court Notarial *Insurance *Notarial *Revenue (Bombay only) *Share Transfer *Small Cause Court (Calcutta only) *Special Adhesive (including overprints for Vakil) Some taxes, however, had special stamps, and these were: *Central Excise *Court Fees (including issues for Copies and Service) *Customs *Foreign Bill *Forest Department *High Court (including issues for Advocate, Attorney and Notarial) *Insurance Agent Licence Fee *Match Tax *Notarial *Petition *Postal Note *Postal Service *Revenue (or Receipt) *Share Transfer *Small Cause Court (including special issues for Calcutta and Madras) *Special Adhesive (including overprints for Vakil) *Tobacco Excise In addition, numerous revenue stamps of unique designs were issued by the Princely States of India.

After independence

After in dependence, Indian revenue stamps changed to include the

Lion Capital of Asoka The Lion Capital of Ashoka is the capital, or head, of a column erected by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in Sarnath, India, . Its crowning features are four life-sized lions set back to back on a drum-shaped abacus. The side of the abacus is ...

but still using a key type format. Various different designs of keytypes were used, with the latest one being from around 2007 to this day. Keytypes were used for the following purposes: *Agreement *Broker's Note *Consular *Custodian's Fee *Foreign Bill *High Court Notarial *Insurance *Notarial *Share Transfer *Small Cause Court (Calcutta only) *Special Adhesive Of these, Insurance, Notarial, Special Adhesive as well as some others are still in use. Special stamps were also used for several other purposes. These were: *Broadcasting Radio Licence Fee *Central Excise *Central Recruitment Fee *Customs *Foreign Travel Tax (formerly Passenger Service Fee) *Insurance *Match Tax *Passport *Revenue *Social Security *Tobacco Excise

State issues

At least 300 Indian princely states issued their own revenue stamps. Most of these stopped having separate revenues as they were dissolved after independence, however some states such as

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi Language, Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Rajasthan. , the city had a pop ...

and

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligur ...

continued to do so until the 1960s as they became states of independent India. The state of Jammu and Kashmir still has its own revenue stamps to this day due to its special status in

article 370 of the Indian constitution Article 370 of the Indian constitution gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir (state), Jammu and Kashmir, a region located in the northern part of Indian subcontinent and part of the larger region of Kashmir which has been the subject of a ...

. Some other states which were created after independence such as Assam and Madhya Bharat also issued stamps. Meanwhile, many revenue issues both before and after independence exist with provincial or state overprints. Overprints are known from about 75 different states.Černý, Jiří. ''Candidate Work for Revenue Philately on the theme Revenue Stamps of the Princely States of India'', 2009India Revenue Court fee Insurance Share transfer fiscal stamps.
Heritage of Indian stamps blog, 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2013.

Stamped paper and hundis

India has been a very heavy user of stamped paper, both before and after independence. In addition,

hundi A hundi or hundee is a financial instrument that developed in Medieval India for use in trade and credit transactions. Hundis are used as a form of Remittances to India, remittance instrument to money order, transfer money from place to place, as ...

s, an alternative money transmission system widely used in the Indian sub-continent, often bear a pre-printed revenue stamp.Hundi (Indian bill of exchange)

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2013
Archived here.
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French and Portuguese India

French India French India, formally the ( en, French Settlements in India), was a French colony comprising five geographically separated enclaves on the Indian Subcontinent that had initially been factories of the French East India Company. They were ''de ...

had separate revenue stamps until 1954. After it became part of India, Pondicherry issued several revenues. Initially French India stamps were surcharged in Indian currency, and later separate stamps were issued inscribed either ''Timbre Mobile'' or ''Timbre Quittance''. Later Pondicherry overprinted Indian revenues with the name of the state, anna stamps were used before and after independence denominations like 2annas,which will be gradually become part of revenue, later denominations like 10rs and 20rs in late '70s profusely but the introduction of these stamps in 1978 and later, higher denominations like 50rs and 100rs were having the highest capability in revenue and duties later and this continued to the 1980.

Portuguese India The State of India ( pt, Estado da Índia), also referred as the Portuguese State of India (''Estado Português da Índia'', EPI) or simply Portuguese India (), was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded six years after the discovery of a se ...

also issued its own revenues. In 1954,

Dadra and Nagar Haveli Dadra and Nagar Haveli is a district of the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu in western India. It is composed of two separate geographical entities: Nagar Haveli, wedged in between Maharashtra and Gujarat states t ...

was liberated from Portuguese India and it issued a single revenue stamp. After the

liberation of Goa The Annexation of Goa was the process in which the Republic of India annexed ', the then Portuguese Indian territories of Goa, Daman and Diu, starting with the armed action carried out by the Indian Armed Forces in December 1961. In India, ...

in 1961, Portuguese Indian revenues were overprinted with new values in Indian currency for use as Court Fee or Revenue stamps. Later various Indian revenues were overprinted "Goa, Daman & Diu" for use in the former Portuguese territories. This continued until the 1970s.

Before independence

After independence

State issues

Stamped paper and hundis

French and Portuguese India

See also

References

Further reading

External links