New Telegraph

FIRS: Nigeria rakes in N80bn from stamp duties

Commercial bank remits N1.2bn in July

 

Stamp Duties collection fetched Nigeria N80 billion yearly as against average N17 billion, N18 billion the country was earning previously, the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) has said. Its Executive Chairman, Mohammed Nami, disclosed this yesterday during a live appearance on Kaakaki, a programme of the Africa Independent Television (AIT). Also, an unnamed commercial bank notorious for not remitting stamp duty before now remitted about N1.2 billion in July.

 

“We are not playing about it. We know that oil revenue is not there. We know that we are in a serious economic crisis and the only way to ensure that Nigerians are happy with the government is to ensure that this money deducted from their hardearned income, but which is not remitted, is remitted to government coffers,”

 

Nami said. He urged Nigerians and corporate body in the country to continue to pay their taxes as and when due. “Nobody wants to pay tax, but payment of tax is necessary.

 

There is never a time that is appropriate for somebody to pay taxes. You can see it all over the world.

 

“This belief that with oil money we are rich is false. What you see the federal, states and local governments sharing at the federation account meetings monthly comes from the taxes paid by Nigerians or corporate body.

 

“At the FAAC meeting in July, the total amount shared among the three tiers of government was N696 billion. From this amount, 30% came from revenue-generating agencies like NNPC and Customs.

 

“The remaining 70% which is almost N500 billion, came from tax money that you paid, including stamp duty.

 

Without this money, there will be chaos everywhere. You are looking at issues relating to COVID-19 and the impact it is having on businesses today. People are actually losing jobs, but it would be worse if taxes are not paid,” he said.

 

Nami stressed that there would never be a convenient time for citizens to pay their taxes, stating that bankable Nigerians have been paying stamp duty on their cheque books since the introduction of the stamp duty in 1939.

 

He disclosed that the renewed focus on stamp duty via the recent launch of an inter-ministerial committee on the recovery of stamp duty from 2016 till date has started to yield dividends. He said tax revenues generated by the FIRS have kept the Nigerian economy going despite COVID-19.

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