FG defies court as banks continue stamp duty collection

The Federal Government and its agencies have continued to defy the ruling of the Court of Appeal that the deduction of stamp duty on bank deposits is illegal. Investigation by our correspondent showed that the Technical Committee on Stamp Duty had advised the Central Bank of Nigeria to issue a circular to the banks to stop collecting stamp duty of N50 on deposits into current accounts with value of N1,000 and above. Although the court ruling was given on April 21, investigation showed that the apex bank had yet to issue the circular. The duty is projected to yield N2.5tn to the Federal Government per annum. Some bankers, who spoke to our correspondents on the condition of anonymity, said they had yet to get any circular from the CBN to stop the collection. The spokesperson for the CBN, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, told our correspondent on the telephone on Thursday that the apex bank had nothing to do with the stamp duty. He asked our correspondent to refer every question on the subject to the Nigerian Postal Service. The spokesperson for NIPOST, Hajiya Simbiat Lawal, was indisposed when our correspondent called her on Thursday, but she had earlier said if there was a court ruling, the organisation, as a law abiding entity, would abide by the decision of the court. The CBN had in a January circular issued to the Deposit Money Banks in the country directed them to deduct N50 for stamp duty on every deposit in a current account amounting to N1,000 and above beginning from January 1, 2016. The circular, which has. Source: Punch