Reps probe  unremitted N20trn stamp duty, others by MDAs

Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The House of Representatives, yesterday,  resolved to probe  alleged non-remittance of stamp duty charges and other revenue estimated at over N20 trillion into the Federation Account by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

The  House also resolved to set up an Ad-hoc Committee to undertake the investigation and report back to it within four weeks for further legislative actions.

This followed  the adoption of a motion sponsored by chairman of the House Committee on Sports Development, Mr Goni Bukar Lawan, at Thursday’s plenary.

Lawan, in his lead debate, recalled  that a few years ago, banks were mandated to collect stamp duties from account holders, stating that although  the deductible amount per bank account seems small,  cumulatively it amounts to several trillions  of naira.

The lawmaker noted that it was alarming  that  public institutions including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria interbank settlement system (NIBSS), Nigeria Postal Services (NIPOST), among others have overtime failed to remit stamp duty taxes into the federation account running into trillions.

According to him, “NIPOST entered into an agreement in 2014 to collect stamp duties and armed with the masters’ service agreement with NIPOST, the school banking honours (SBH) approached the Central Bank of Nigeria for authoriasation to engage deposit money banks (DMBs) and other qualified stamp duties collection agents and the CBN gave required approval. “

Lawan expressed concerns that repeated efforts by domestic and foreign civil society organisations  to get details of remittance of funds realised from stamp duty taxes through the Freedom of Information (FoI), Act were not successful by

He argued that there is need for full disclosure of monies deducted by banks as stamp duty charges at intervals to ensure transparency.

The lawmaker further argued that if the revenue has been remitted into the federation account, it could have been used to pay salaries, provide infrastructure and financing economic development in the country or at least generated some interest in the privates, where the fund is domiciled in the commercial bank.

“Worried that due to the concern mounting over the non-remittance, it is clearly an obvious disobedience to TSA policy for the stamp duties were found  hidden in commercial banks instead of being remitted to the TSA.”