New Delhi: Finance Minister Jaswant Singh today (Dec 5, 2003) virtually dismissed allegation that his Ministry sat over the Rs 30,000 crore fake stamp paper scam for over a year and said Government plans to introduce a paperless system by 6-8 weeks.

"Investigations are going on at several levels and States. The Finance Ministry has already done many things," Singh said apparently referring to the allegations that the Ministry sat over on crucial information on the involvement of officials of Indian Security Press in the fake stamp papers scam.

Asked about a newspaper report that Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna had written to him as early as July last year informing about the possible involvement of security press officials in the Telgi scam, Singh said Parliament is already seized of the matter and when the debate takes place, the Ministry will make all the facts clear.

Several correspondence did take place between States and Central Government, he said without elaborating if there was exchange of letters on this issue between him and Krishna.

As part of efforts to prevent such scams in future, Singh said the Government will announce within 6-8 weeks a new system where stamp papers would be in demat form, similar to the demat of shares in capital market.

"It (demat system) will be a safe, secure and easy to transact," he added.

PTI