It has been brought to the attention of the Bar Council that some Members of the Bar have been victims of forged stamps recently. Stamp duty has allegedly been paid and documents stamped by means of forged digital franks or forged stamp certificates
Members are urged to conduct online verification of all stamp certificates and all impressions indicating the payment of stamp duty made by digital franking. For more information on this matter, please refer to the following Bar Council Circulars: Circular No 085/2012 dated 24 Apr 2012, Circular No 151/2012 dated 11 Jul 2012, Circular No 164/2012 dated 30 Jul 2012 and Circular No 179/2012 dated 14 Aug 2012.
Verification can be done at this webpage https://stamps.hasil.gov.my/stamps/index.php/login
The police, who are investigating this matter, have recommended that any solicitor’s client account cheque or any banker’s cheque payable to the PDS should be presented to the PDS for payment of stamp duty within three working days of its issue, in order to reduce the risk of the cheques being matched with cash payments.
The Bar Council calls upon its Members to give their full cooperation to this three-day rule as a temporary measure until such time when stamp duty may be paid online (“ePayment”).
Desmond Ho Chee Cheong
Malacca Bar Committee
(1231)