Mortgages

(1) There shall be paid– (a) on every fifty dollars or part of fifty dollars of the amount or value secured, or which may at any time be secured, by any mortgage for the payment or transfer of money or money’s worth, a duty of ..................................... $0.75 (b) on every fifty dollars or part of fifty dollars of the amount or value transferred, assigned or disposed of (including interest in arrear) by any transferor, assignment or disposition of any mortgage, a duty of .........................$0.30; or (c) on every fifty dollars or part of fifty dollars of the highest amount or value at any time secured (excluding interest in arrear which has not been capitalised) by the reconveyance, release, discharge or surrender of any mortgage, a duty of…………… $0.30 (2) The duties payable in respect of a mortgage transferable by delivery or by any means other than an instrument of transfer shall be three times the amount of the above duties. (3) For the purposes of stamp duties, the expression “mortgage” means40 [CAP. 64 (a) a mortgage on any instrument creating a charge or lien on land; (b) a bill of sale registered or requiring registration under the Bills of Sale Act,; and (c) a debenture issued by a company, Provided that “mortgage” shall not include– (i) a security by way of pledge or pawn; or (ii) a charge or lien apart from the land on timber or logwood, whether standing, felled, or cut, or thereafter to be felled or cut, or on chicle, whether already bled, or thereafter to be bled, where it is stipulated by the instrument creating the charge or lien that the money secured there-by shall be used exclusively for the purposes of one, some, or all of the following operations, namely, cutting and delivering timber or logwood for, to, or on behalf of the mortgagee, or which is to be sold to the mortgagee, and collecting and delivering chicle for, to, or on behalf of the mortgagee, or which is to be sold to the mortgagee. (4) Where the total amount or value secured or to be ultimately recoverable is in any way limited, the mortgage shall be deemed a mortgage for the amount or value so limited. (5) Where such total amount or value is unlimited, the mortgage shall be deemed duly stamped for such an amount or value only as the stamp thereon is sufficient to cover according to the ad valorem scale, and if subsequently money or money’s worth in excess of that amount or value is advanced or becomes owing, the mortgage shall, as regards that excess, be stamped as 41 a new and separate mortgage executed on the date when such excess is advanced or becomes owing. (6) A transfer of a mortgage, and also a mortgage for money to be added to money previously secured, shall not be charged with any more duty by reason of its containing further security for the money transferred or previously secured, or any new provision in relation thereto or to property comprised in the transferred or previous mortgage. (7) Mortgagees’ costs, charges and expenses, whether expressly secured by the mortgage or not, shall not be subject to an ad valorem duty. (8) The duty on a transfer or assignment of a mortgage on the occasion of the appointment of a new trustee or the retirement of a trustee shall not exceed twelve dollars.