Amid the ongoing conflict between the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Postal Service, the former has disclosed that it has been generating N3billion weekly revenue from stamp duty collection from May to date from Deposit Money Banks (DMBs).
FIRS Executive Chairman, Muhammad Nami revealed this while he addressed the House of Representatives Committee on Finance during a meeting with the lawmakers on its to resolve the face-off between the FIRS and the Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) over stamp duty collection and the fate of the N58 billion revenue generated from February 2016 to April 2020.
The meeting, chaired by the Chairman Finance Committee of the House, Hon. Abiodun Faleke included other members of the committee, the Post- Master-General of the Federation Dr. Ismail Adebanjo Adewusi, NIPOST Chairman Maimuna Abubarkar, and other top officials of the postal agency and FIRS.
Nami said the FIRS was able to generate the revenue from a single stream of stamp duty collection from DMBs because it had deployed a new technology to track and capture such revenue straight into the Federation Account.
Nami said payment of stamp duties collection dates back to 94 years ago, stressing that stamp duty had always been part of the revenue schedule of tax authority.
He regretted that the differences in who controls stamp duty collection between both NIPOST and FIRS had degenerated to a public spat between the two agencies describing the development as “unnecessary and unhelpful”.
In his submission, Dr. Adewusi described the feud between FIRS and his agency as needless.
His words, “as prelude, it’s important to make these remarks; NIPOST is not a tax collecting agency. We are not in the business of collecting taxes, that’s not our mandate. But our role in stamp duty is clearly stated in the law.
He, however, insisted that the responsibility of procuring stamp rests with NIPOST but appealed that, the agency is entitled to its share of the stamp duty proceeds it collected and domiciled in the CBN from 2016 to 2020.
