The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Mohammad Nami, has vowed to go after government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, who had collected stamp duties from contracts executed but failed to remit same to the federation account.
Mr Nami made the avowal on Tuesday during the inauguration of the inter-ministerial committee on Audit and Recovery of Back Years Stamp Duties and the launch of Federal Inland Revenue Service Adhesive Stamp in Abuja.
The executive-chairman also disclosed that he had directed the finance and accounts department of the FIRS to remit ₦39 billion being stamp duties collected by the Service to the committee.
According to him, between January and May this year, a total of ₦66 billion stamp duty fees collected so far has been remitted into the federation account, adding that another ₦18billion was generated in 2019 fiscal period.
Giving a breakdown of the ₦66billion, Mr Nami said ₦20billion was remitted by Deposit Money Banks, while ₦39billion collected by the FIRS is warehoused in the CBN.
“Indirect taxes such as Stamp Duty remain the viable and sustainable alternative revenue source for funding budgetary requirements,” he said.
Speaking earlier, the Secretary to Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha, noted that revenues from stamp duty has the potential to yield up to N1trillion annually.
“The Federal Government expects the lnter-Ministerial Audit and Recovery Committee to judiciously undertake an audit and recover on behalf of the Government all stamp duties charged from January 2016 to date but yet to be remitted by the relevant Ministries Departments and Agencies, Deposit Money Banks and Nigerian InterBank Settlement System Plc among others,” Mr Mustapha added.
Mr Mustapha, therefore, directed that “all recoveries made by this Committee be remitted to appropriate Stamp Duty Account maintained by the Federal Government with the Central Bank of Nigeria”.
He also directed “all relevant MDAs particularly the Central Bank of Nigeria, NIBBs, DMBs, NIPOST and FIRS should give maximum cooperation to the Committee in the discharge of its mandate”.
