The Federal Government and its agencies
have continued to defy the ruling of the Court of Appeal that the
deduction of stamp duty on bank deposits is illegal.
Investigation by our correspondent
showed that the Technical Committee on Stamp Duty had advised the
Central Bank of Nigeria to issue a circular to the banks to stop
collecting stamp duty of N50 on deposits into current accounts with
value of N1,000 and above.
Although the court ruling was given on
April 21, investigation showed that the apex bank had yet to issue the
circular. The duty is projected to yield N2.5tn to the Federal
Government per annum.
Some bankers, who spoke to our
correspondents on the condition of anonymity, said they had yet to get
any circular from the CBN to stop the collection.
The spokesperson for the CBN, Mr. Isaac
Okoroafor, told our correspondent on the telephone on Thursday that the
apex bank had nothing to do with the stamp duty.
He asked our correspondent to refer every question on the subject to the Nigerian Postal Service.
The spokesperson for NIPOST, Hajiya
Simbiat Lawal, was indisposed when our correspondent called her on
Thursday, but she had earlier said if there was a court ruling, the
organisation, as a law abiding entity, would abide by the decision of
the court.
The CBN had in a January circular issued
to the Deposit Money Banks in the country directed them to deduct N50
for stamp duty on every deposit in a current account amounting to N1,000
and above beginning from January 1, 2016.
The circular, which has since been
implemented by the banks, was in spite of the fact that there was a
subsisting issue in court on the subject.
Ruling on an appeal filed by Standard
Chartered Bank against Kasmal International Services Limited and 22
others, Justice Ibrahim Saulawa and four others justices of the Court of
Appeal, Lagos Judicial Division, held that the Stamp Duty Act, 2004 did
not impose a duty on the banks to deduct N50 on deposits.
Kasmal International Services Limited,
which belongs to Senator Buruji Kashamu, had on February 17, 2014
obtained the judgement of a Lagos High Court against the banks to the
effect that that they should remit more than N6bn they were supposed to
have collected on deposits since the Stamp Duty became an Act of
Parliament in 2004 through it to NIPOST.
According to Kasmal, NIPOST had
appointed it as an agent to collect the stamp duty on its behalf from
banks and, therefore, the banks should remit the money accruing as stamp
duty through it to the postal organisation.
However, in a lead judgment, Justice
Saulawa held that the Stamp Duty Act imposed no such duty on the banks.
In concurring rulings delivered by a panel of the Appeal Court, Justices
Ejembi Eko, Adamu Jauro, Moore Adumein and Nonyerem Okoronkwo agreed in
totality with the ruling delivered by Saulawa.
The appeal court set aside the ruling of the lower court delivered by justice C. J. Aneke on five grounds.
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