Life Insurance Corporation and the General Insurance Corporation are the only institutions which have not been charged with stamp-duty defaults.

Superintendent of stamps SR Hazare said: " We have sent notices to various insitutions, business communities and co-operative-housing socieites. In some cases we have also sent circulars appraising insitutions of their liablities as the evasion is a grave drain on revenue."

More than 500 brokers of the Bombay Stock Exchange have received notices asking them to pay stamp duty on turnover and not on net exposure for a particular settlement. Meanwhile, the BSE's broking community has formed a forum and has moved court against the state move.

According to Promod Kale of Mafatlal Securitites: "The diferece between the net exposure andtotal turnover is immense. If the total turnover is Rs 100 crore, then the net exposure will just be Rs 10 crore or a maximum of Rs 20 crore.

Another form of default, authorities say, which has been rampant in the stock exchanges is while the transfer of shares take place. For each transfer worth Rs 100, the government is entitled to 50 paise stamp duty.

The IDBI has been issued a notice from the stamp office for taking land from the MMRDA and executing simple-agreement stamp paper of Rs 20 denomination and not executing lease agreements.

The duty on mortgages, under Article 40 (B) of the Bombay Stamp Act 1958, states that when possession is not given then the duty is Rs 10 for every Rs 500 and if simultaneous possession is given then the duty is equivalent to 10 per cent of total value." Housing-finance companies including foreign banks and nationalised banks have also been issued notices for evading stamp-duty payments while executing loans agreements, lease agreement, mortgages and hypothecation etc.For housing loans, the stamp duty payable is Rs 10 for every Rs 500 and should not exceed a duty limit of Rs 2 lakh.

Advocate Vinod Sampat, secretary of the stamp duty payers association said, "Owing to the stiff competition between institutions and banks to give the most economical finance they misled customers from their liabilities towards the stamp office by avoiding a properly-stamped agreement which would have additional burden on the loanee." Hazare adds: "Finance companies across the board are executing all agreements like the lease mortgage or any loan deal on simple stamp paper. The customer is therefore denied proper registration, and the government loses out on bonafide dues.

As per law, only duplicate copies of agreements are to be issued on stamp papers of minor denominatins and other true copies have to be properly stamped and lodged with the stamp office." The annual income of the stamp office comes from the following: Share market- Rs 200 crore, mortages- Rs 70 crore, court suits(judicial stamps)-Rs 120 crore, registration charges- Rs 200 crore, residential transactions-Rs 400 crore, commercial transactions- Rs 550 crore, amalgamation of companies-Rs 150 crore and sundry sources like. issues, debentures and other -Rs 50 crore.