Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

stamp duty

Hist. A tax raised by requiring stamps sold by the government to be affixed to designated documents, thus forming part of the perpetual revenue. See stamp tax under TAX. "A fifth branch of the perpetual revenue consists in the stamp duties, which are a tax imposed upon all parchment and paper whereon any legal proceedings, or private instruments of almost any nature whatsoever, are written; and also upon licenses . . . and pamphlets containing less than six sheets of paper. These imposts are very various, according to the nature of the thing stamped, rising gradually from a penny to ten pounds." 1 William Blackstone, Cornnientaries on tlu Laws of England 312-13 (1765)