House Queries NIPOST over Non-collection of Stamp Duties

House Queries NIPOST over Non-collection of Stamp Duties

Adedayo Akinwale ín Abuja

The House of Representatives, has queried the Nigerian Poster Service (NIPOST) over alleged non collection of stamp duties between 2004 and 2015.

The Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts ( PAC), Oluwole Oke, stated this yesterday in Abuja when the Postmaster General of the Federation, Bisi Adebuyi, appeared before the committee.

Oke was amazed that there was no record on stamp duties collection between 2004 to 2015.

He stressed that NIPOST is empowered by the law to collect stamp duties, adding that the agency cannot claim that there was no collections between 2004 to 2015, insisting that it was unacceptable to the parliament.

Oke queried: “What happened to collection between 2004 to 2015. Are you saying that you don’t have the record or no collection made by any agency on behalf of the the government?”

The Postmaster General had informed the committee that NIPOST collected total of N43.6 billion as stamp duties from February 2016 to November 9, 2019.

He stated: “I am hereby announcing to the world that what we have collected some far from stamp duties is N43.6 billion from February 2016 to November 8 2019; domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).”

Adebuyi stated categorically that to the best of his knowledge, there was no collection of stamp duties between 2004 and 2015.

Also, NIPOST Director of Finance and Investment, Shaba Usman, explained that it was only in 2016 that the agency started collecting stamp duties through the commercial banks.

He explained that before then, customers merely buy stamps to affix to their document, stating that the money realised from the stamp sales were recorded as part of NIPOST Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

The Committee however summoned all the banks collecting stamp duties on behalf of NIPOST to appear before it next Thursday.

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