Despite the petition by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ibrahim Pantami, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) insists it is backed by law to collect stamp duty.

Dr. Pantami had petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari over plans to cede collection of stamp duty to the FIRS.

Pantami said on Friday in Abuja that he had also written to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, opposing the plan to remove the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) from the collection of stamp duty.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN, in 2016, had asked money deposit banks through a circular to deduct N50 stamp duty on every electronic transfer with a value of N1, 000 and above.

Since then, the FIRS had been contending that it had the responsibility to collect all duties, and finally got the House of Representatives to insert the responsibility in a proposed amendment to the Stamp Duty Act.

According to Pantami, it would be unjust to transfer stamp duty collection from the NIPOST, and dismissed reports that the Federal Government had concluded that FIRS should henceforth be the collector.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a top staff of the FIRS said collection of stamp duty was listed under Schedule 3 of the FIRS Act as one of the taxes collected by the organisation.

He said the collection of stamp duty was an old controversy between the two agencies, adding that while the FIRS collected the contractual value of the stamp, the business of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) was to sell the stamps.

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