The funds raised by the Federal Government from the imposition of bank duties on current account transactions has yielded massive funds with impediments to its utilization.
While the deposits hitting the current accounts of bank customers are being debited for stamp duty, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission has placed an embargo on the fund as a result of a court case.
For the three tiers of government looking for ways to shore their revenue base, the fund accruing from the recently re-energised stamp duty is still far from their reach.
This is because the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission has placed an embargo on the fund lodged in a Single Treasury Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria known as the Stamp Duties Account.
Going by the projection of the Nigerian Postal Services and the CBN, the account may have attracted about N833bn in the first four months of the year.
The Federal Government had projected that the deduction of N50 on every banking deposit into a current account with a value of N1,000 and above would give the nation as much as N2.5tn per annum. This translates to N206.33bn a month and N833.33bn for the first four months of the year.
Although the implementation started in January through the issuance of a memo by the CBN, sources at the RMAFC said the revenue agency had placed an embargo on funds accruing from the duty.
This is because of a court case that was instituted against the CBN and 23 banks by one of the companies allegedly appointed by NIPOST to act as its agent for the collection of the stamp duty for transactions in the banks and other financial institutions.
The company, Kasmal International Services Limited, owned by Senator Buruji Kashamu, had gone to court to compel the banks to remit about N6tn to NIPOST for the stamp duties they are supposed to have collected between 2004 and 2013.
The banks had allegedly failed to deduct stamp duties on electronic transactions because the Stamp Duty Act of 2004 had not made any provision for the deduction of stamp duty on electronic transactions but on transactions where stamps are supposed to be affixed.
However, Kasmal International Services Limited contends that the banks are supposed to collect the duty on behalf of NIPOST. The company also claims that it is entitled to 20 per cent of the fund in accordance with the agency agreement it allegedly signed with the postal agency.
It is on the strength of the subsisting court case that the RMAFC has restricted access to the stamp duty account, which is supposed to be swept into the Federation Account for sharing among the three tiers of government.
This development, investigation showed, would not only affect the fortunes of the three tiers of government, which are currently starved of funds to carry on with basic functions of governance, but also the operations of NIPOST, which has been expecting relief with the implementation of the duty.
One of the things that may be affected at NIPOST is the new salary structure, which has since been submitted to the government. The government’s nod on this may have to linger. Several proposed renewal programmes of the postal system may also stay in the pipeline.
The Special Assistant to the Minister of Communications on Media, Mr. Victor Oluwadamilare, declined to comment on the development. Similarly, the Public Relations Manager of NIPOST, Mr. Taiye Olaniyi, declined to speak on the subject.
Source: Punch Newspapers