Investigation has shown that The total amount of stamp duty collected on deposits in bank accounts across the Deposit Money Banks has yielded N13bn to the Federal Government.
Sources close to the Central Bank of Nigeria where the fund is warehoused confirmed that in the first 12 months of application of the duty (January to December 2016), the banks remitted a total of N3bn into the Stamp Duty Treasury Single Account.
However, remittances into the account have improved significantly as the account witnessed more activities in 2017 with about N10bn recorded during the first seven months of the year.
Although the N10bn so far collected this year through the stamp duty represents a significant improvement on the N3bn collected in 2016, it is a far cry from the N2.5tn which authorities had estimated that government could generate through the deduction of N50 on deposits in bank accounts worth at least N1000.
Peeved by low remittances into the account, the Nigerian Postal Service had between December 2016 and January 2017 advertised to hire auditors to look into banks’ books to determine the compliance level in terms of remitting the deductions from customers’ accounts.
The CBN had, through a circular issued on January 15, 2016, directed banks to deduct N50 stamp duty on deposits made into current accounts with a value of N1,000.
In compliance with the Stamp Duty Act 2005, the initiative is meant to boost government revenue drive.
