Nigerian Senate says uncovers unearthly N20trn stamp duty fraud

In a bid to get to the root of the matter, the Senate has begun investigations into a
mind-blowing unremitted N20trillion stamp duties revenue into the coffers of the Federal
Government by banks and other financial institutions.

Consequently, the Upper chamber has directed the Committee on Finance to investigate the
circumstances surrounding the unremitted revenue from start from 2013 to 2016.

It will start from 2013 to 2016 about the financial accountability of stamp duty collections
from 2016 when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed all banks to collect on behalf of
the Federal Government to date.

Senate’s resolution was sequel to a motion entitled, “The need to improve Internally
Generated Revenue (IGR) of the Federal Government of Nigeria significantly by over
N5trillion annually through non-oil revenue sources available at its disposal” .

Persecondnews reports that the motion was moved by Senator Patrick Akinyelure from Ondo
State supported by Senators Istifanus Gyang, Isah Jibrin, Rochas Okorocha and Ahmad Babba
Kaita.

While contributing to the debate, Senate President Ahmad Lawan, blamed the non-remittance
on stamp duty collecting agencies.

“What we have been expecting to be available as stamp duty is not so and what has happened
is because those that were supposed to collect the stamp duty were taking advantage of the
way the Stamp Duty Act has been.

“I believe from January, the stamp duty collection will be significantly improved. We have
also come up with another idea of engaging all revenue agencies every quarter for evaluation
of their collections.

“The idea is not to allow agencies just do what they want,” he said.

Opening the debate earlier, Akinyelure said the Federal Government had projected revenue of
over N2.5billion annually from the payment of stamp duties from the financial services
industry since 2016.

The Ondo Central Senator said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had issued a circular directing all banks and other financial institutions to charge stamp duty of N50 on lodgment into current accounts with value of N1,000 and above towards the realization of the revenue projection.

He noted that the CBN’s cash-less policy started from six pilot states in 2012, and that the
amount is expected to double to N5trillion, since the policy was extended to 30 states on
April 1, 2017.

Akinyelure said following the CBN’s circular, all Deposit Money Banks and other
financial institutions commenced charging the N50 per eligible transaction.

In spite of the appointment of a consultant by the Federal Government in 2017 to help recover
over N20 trillion from Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), the CBN and NIBSS
have “technically refused to comply’’ with the Presidential directive, he pointed out.