The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Ali-Pantami has described as unfair the move by the FIRS to start collecting stamp duty, saying that the responsibility of collecting the duty belongs to the Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST.
The minister, who made the assertion on Friday during an interactive session with the ICT reporters in Abuja, decried how the FIRS bypassed his ministry and NIPOST to involve other stakeholders for the Stamp Duty collection process.
‘‘They only invited few stakeholders that will support their interest who endorsed it saying that FIRS should collect Stamp Duty but we objected to it.
“I wrote a letter to the Minister of Finance saying that this cannot be tolerated; I also wrote the Senate President on the issue, we insisted on our stand.
“Though, we have no power to change government policy but we have power to challenge injustice and as far as I am concerned, this is one of the many injustices that should be challenged.
‘‘We insist that Stamp duty should be collected by NIPOST and it is an injustice if NIPOST is denied the opportunity.
“We have advised the government on this and government has the final say on it but we insist that NIPOST is the right agency to do that.
“For us, it is a selfish interest trying to deny NIPOST the right to collect the duty,’’ he said.
Mr Pantami, however, explained that the Federal Executive Council, FEC, had not taken position on the matter, contrary to the insinuations in some quarters.
