Black Market for Stamp Papers Grows as Treasury Fraud Deepens

Black market sales of stamp papers have surged in the wake of a widening treasury scam, with low-denomination stamp papers reportedly disappearing from the open market and being sold at inflated prices, even as investigators uncover fresh layers of fraud inside the Federal Treasury Office. According to officials familiar with the probe, stamp papers worth Rs. 296.49 million were issued without the corresponding amount ever being deposited into the national treasury, confirming large-scale financial irregularities. During interrogation of the arrested suspects, investigators established that the funds were never credited to state accounts. Initial findings also show that court fees and foreign bills were similarly not deposited into the treasury. The investigation has so far identified 2,638 fake and bogus challan forms allegedly issued by the Federal Treasury Office. It has further emerged that the office has not undergone any audit for the past four years. The inquiry team has formally sought an explanation for the failure to conduct regular audits and has written to the relevant authorities to determine responsibility. In the meantime, bail applications of 16 arrested employees of the Federal Treasury Office have been rejected by the court. Separately, the Federal Investigation Agency has initiated an inquiry into the black marketing of stamp papers and decided to take action against those involved in illegal sales. Notably, ProPakistani was the first to report the stamp paper scandal last month, revealing that the fraud may be one of the largest revenue leakages in recent years. As reported earlier, officials of the Federal Treasury Office were allegedly working in collusion with stamp vendors who obtained stamp papers using fake deposit slips without depositing funds into the State Bank of Pakistan. According to that report, the scam remained undetected for years due to the absence of a real-time verification system between the State Bank of Pakistan and the Federal Treasury Office. Under standard procedures, stamp vendors are required to deposit fees with the SBP before receiving stamp papers from the treasury, a process that was allegedly bypassed through forged documentation since 2021. Following ProPakistani’s initial reporting, a high-level inquiry committee was constituted, and an FIR was registered against several vendors, some of whom reportedly fled abroad to avoid arrest. Officials had earlier warned that the total financial impact of the scam could run into billions of rupees.