FG To Probe Banks Over Stamp Duty Collection

The Federal Government is set to probe the 22 Money Deposit
Banks operating in the country to determine how much they
have gathered so far since they started collecting stamp duty
fees on deposits into banks accounts, investigation has
shown.

It has been discovered that some of the banks had not been
faithful in remitting all the funds accruing from the collection
to the designated Stamp Duty Account domiciled with the
Central Bank of Nigeria.

This, it was learnt, informed the decision of the Federal
Government to conduct a forensic audit on the banks to
determine the actual amount that had accrued through the
deduction of N50 on deposits into bank accounts with a value
of N1,000 and above.

Investigation showed that the Federal Government would
appoint the forensic auditors this month through a competitive
bidding process to be overseen by the Nigerian Postal
Service.

It was further learnt that the banks became more evasive in
remitting the proceeds of the collection following the ruling of
the Appeal Court in Lagos declaring the stamp duty on
electronic transactions as illegal.

Consequently, NIPOST, acting on behalf of the Federal
Government, decided to subject the collection to a forensic
audit to determine the actual amount that the banks were
supposed to remit to the government.

It was also learnt that government decided to conduct the
forensic audit in order to determine what would happen to the
money.

The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission
had placed an embargo on the use of the funds accruing
through the stamp duty as a result of the appeal instituted by
a bank to challenge the ruling of a lower court directing the
banks to pay arrears of what they were supposed to have
collected as stamp duty since 2004.

Culled-Bizwatch Nigeria

p