Ethiopia's Stamp Duty Proclamation No. 110/1998: An Old Instrument with Uneven Practical Application

Proclamation No. 110/1998, the Stamp Duty Proclamation, was issued by the House of Peoples' Representatives and published in the Federal Negarit Gazette on 12 May 1998. It entered into force on the date of publication. The Proclamation is among the older fiscal instruments still in force in Ethiopia. It has not been repealed, it has not been comprehensively amended, and it continues to govern the imposition, computation, liability, and collection of stamp duty on a defined list of instruments. Its preamble records that it had become necessary to amend the stamp duty levied on documents in a manner that would contribute to the development of art, the activities of financial institutions, and the transfer of capital assets. The Proclamation was issued under Article 55(1) and (11) of the Constitution.

The Proclamation's age is not merely a matter of chronology. It has practical consequences. The rates prescribed in its Schedule were set in 1998 and have not been revised, so their real value has eroded substantially. Several of its procedural provisions refer to institutions that have since been reorganised, and its enforcement has been uneven across instrument types and sectors. Some instruments are routinely stamped in practice, notably transfers of title to property and security deeds, while others are frequently left unstamped or are stamped without careful attention to the applicable rate. The result is a regime that exists on the statute book, that generates revenue, but that operates with a degree of informality that is not reflected in its text. This update examines what the Proclamation establishes, how its provisions operate, and where the gap between the text and practice is most pronounced. Please read the full details in the attachment.