PART 9
OFFENCES AND PENALTIES
61.  [Repealed by Act 33 of 1999]
Penalty for evasion of duty
62.  Any person who with intent to evade the payment of duty —
(a)executes any instrument in which all the facts and circumstances are not fully and truly set out as required by section 5;
(b)being employed or concerned in or about the preparation of any instrument, neglects or omits to set out fully or truly in the instrument all those facts and circumstances;
(c)draws, makes, executes or signs, otherwise than as a witness, any instrument chargeable with duty without the instrument being duly stamped; or
(d)fails to comply with section 32A(2),
shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both.
Penalty for executing instruments not duly stamped, etc.
63.  Any person who —
(a)having drawn, made, executed or signed, otherwise than as a witness, any instrument that is chargeable with duty without the instrument being duly stamped and fails, without lawful excuse, to procure the due stamping of the instrument within the time within which the instrument may be stamped without penalty under this Act;
(b)not being a person authorised under section 9(1) or an employee of such person, represents himself, herself or itself to be such a person; or
(c)being a person authorised under section 9(1) —
(i)fails to deliver to the Commissioner accounts as required by section 9(1)(a);
(ii)delivers to the Commissioner accounts which are false in any material particular; or
(iii)contravenes or fails to comply with any condition in section 9(1) not waived by the Commissioner,
shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000.
[37/2018]
Penalties relating to stamp certificates, etc.
64.  Any person who —
(a)sells or offers for sale a stamp certificate or certificate of adjudication;
(b)falsifies any part of a stamp certificate or certificate of adjudication;
(c)fraudulently attaches a stamp certificate or certificate of adjudication to an instrument other than the instrument for which the stamp certificate or certificate of adjudication was issued;
(d)fraudulently detaches a stamp certificate or certificate of adjudication or fraudulently causes a stamp certificate or certificate of adjudication to be detached from an instrument;
(e)counterfeits, or knowingly performs any part of the process of counterfeiting, any stamp certificate or certificate of adjudication issued by the Commissioner;
(f)sells or offers for sale any certificate which the person knows or ought reasonably to know to be a counterfeit of any stamp certificate or certificate of adjudication issued by the Commissioner;
(g)has in the person’s possession any certificate which the person knows to be a counterfeit of any stamp certificate or certificate of adjudication, intending to use or dispose of it as a genuine stamp certificate or certificate of adjudication, or in order that it may be used as a genuine stamp certificate or certificate of adjudication; or
(h)uses as genuine a stamp certificate or certificate of adjudication, knowing it to be a counterfeit of any stamp certificate or certificate of adjudication,
shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both.
[37/2018]
Penalty for obstructing Commissioner and similar offences
65.—(1)  A person must not —
(a)resist or obstruct the Commissioner or any officer in the performance of any duty or the exercise of any power under this Act; or
(b)wilfully mislead the Commissioner or any officer in any particular likely to affect the discharge of the Commissioner’s or officer’s duty.
(2)  Subject to subsection (3), a person must not, being lawfully asked any question by the Commissioner or any officer under this Act, give an answer (whether orally or in writing) to the question or, in furnishing information, make any statement or representation that is false or misleading in any material particular.
(3)  Any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.
[34/2016]
(4)  Any person who contravenes subsection (2) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.
[34/2016]
(5)  It is a defence to a charge under subsection (2) to prove that, when the answer, statement or representation was given or made, the defendant believed on reasonable grounds that it was neither false nor misleading.
(6)  In this section, “officer” means any Deputy Commissioner of Stamp Duties and any officer of the Commissioner’s staff assisting the Commissioner in the administration of this Act.
General penalty
65A.  Any person guilty of an offence under this Act for which no other penalty is provided shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000 and in default to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months.
Penalty for enrolling, etc., instrument not duly stamped
66.—(1)  If any person whose office it is to enrol, register or enter in or upon any rolls, books or records any instrument chargeable with duty, enrols, registers or enters any such instrument not being duly stamped, the person shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000.
[23/2011]
(2)  Subsection (1) does not apply to such person as the Minister may by order in the Gazette exempt from that subsection.
[23/2011]
Fraud in relation to duty
67.  Any person who practises or is concerned in any fraudulent act, contrivance or device not specially provided for by law, with intent to defraud the Government of any duty, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both.
Institution and conduct of prosecution
68.—(1)  No prosecution in respect of any offence punishable under this Act is to be instituted without the consent of either the Commissioner or the Public Prosecutor.
[15/2010]
(2)  The Commissioner may compound any offence under this Act that is prescribed as a compoundable offence by collecting from a person reasonably suspected of having committed the offence a sum not exceeding $2,000.
(3)  The Minister may make rules to prescribe the offences which may be compounded.
Service of summons
68A.—(1)  Every summons issued by a court against any person in connection with any offence under this Act may be served on the person —
(a)by delivering the summons to the person or to some adult member or employee of the person’s family at the person’s usual or last known place of residence;
(b)by leaving the summons at the person’s usual or last known place of residence or business in an envelope addressed to the person;
(c)by sending the summons by registered post addressed to the person at the person’s usual or last known place of residence or business; or
(d)where the person is a body of persons or a company —
(i)by delivering the summons to the secretary or other similar officer of the body of persons or company at its registered office or principal place of business; or
(ii)by sending the summons by registered post addressed to the body of persons or company at its registered office or principal place of business.
(2)  Any summons sent by registered post to any person in accordance with subsection (1) is deemed to be duly served on the person to whom the letter is addressed at the time when the letter would in the ordinary course of post be delivered.
(3)  In proving service of the summons by registered post, it is sufficient to prove that the envelope containing the summons was properly addressed, stamped and posted by registered post.
Protection of informers
68B.—(1)  Except as provided in subsection (3), no witness in any civil or criminal proceedings commenced on or after 16 November 2021 is obliged or permitted —
(a)to disclose the identity of an informer who has given any information (whether the information is given before, on or after that date) with respect to an offence under this Act; or
(b)to answer any question if the answer to the question would lead, or would tend to lead, to the discovery of the identity of the informer.
[27/2021]
(2)  If any document which is in evidence or liable to inspection in any civil or criminal proceedings contains any entry in which any informer is named or described or which may lead to the discovery of the informer’s identity, the court must cause the entry to be concealed from view or to be obliterated so far only as may be necessary to protect the informer from discovery.
[27/2021]
(3)  If —
(a)in any proceedings for an offence under any written law, the court, after full enquiry into the case, believes that the informer wilfully made a material statement which the informer knew or believed to be false or did not believe to be true; or
(b)in any other proceedings, the court is of the opinion that justice cannot be fully done between the parties to the proceedings without the discovery of the informer,
the court may permit enquiry and require full disclosure concerning the informer.
[27/2021]