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The Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions doubts that the country may have collected over N20 trillion as Stamp Duty since 2019. Chairman of the committee, Uba Sani, said banks have deposited not more than N41 billion into the Stamp Duty Collection Account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Hinting that claims by several petitioners of a N20 trillion stamp duty collection may be spurious, the senator said his committee had meticulously investigated each petition and has so far not been able to establish that the figures collected and deposited from 2019 as stamp duty could exceed N41 billion.
Nigerians need not be persuaded by sentiments and exaggerated details. Only facts should matter, said the senator while assuring that his committee has done extensive investigations to uncover any shady dealings.
His words: “With all things considered, my committee believes that the sum remitted by banks to the Stamp Duty Collection Account with the CBN, from inception in January 2016, would well be around N41 billion as of October 2019.”
He added: “It is much more complicated than what most Nigerians know. However, what I can say for now is that from what we have been able to sieve out from documents available to us as well as the depositions we have taken, it is clear that so many forces are confusing Nigerians on this issue.
“With the evidence contained in the plethora of documents the CBN has supplied to my committee, it can easily be deduced that the total Stamp Duty unremitted cannot be over N20 trillion, as being alleged.”
Worried over allegations of alleged non-remittance of Stamp Duty by the CBN, the senate, last year, asked the Uba-led committee to investigate the matter.
