FIRS Clarifies NIPOST’s Stamp Duty Claims

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), says the claim by Chairperson of NIPOST Board, Hajiya Maimuna Abubakar, that both the Service and the National Assembly appropriated NIPOST’s ideas about stamp duty to the exclusion of the postal service is untrue.

Mr Abdullahi Ismaila Ahmad, Director, Communications and Liaison Department of FIRS made this known in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said the attention of the FIRS had been drawn to a twit by Mrs Maimuna Abubakar, Chairperson of the Board of NIPOST.

He stated that it was wrong for the sensitive nature of the issue at stake to be treated in that manner hence the need to correct that in order not to mislead the public.

He said: “To be sure, NIPOST is a government parastatal (agency) established by Decree 41 of 1992 with the function to develop, promote, and provide adequate and efficiently coordinated postal services at reasonable rates.

“This function is clearly contrary to the claim by NIPOST over the administration of stamp duties in Nigeria.

“On the other hand, the FIRS is the sole agency of government charged with the responsibility of assessing, collecting, and accounting for all tax types including Stamp Duties.

“The public is hereby reminded that we at the FIRS are resolute in our resolve to safeguard national interests and not any personal ego or interest as NIPOST officials appear to carry on lately.

“We, therefore, call on right-thinking Nigerians to disregard that ill-advised twit by Mrs Maimuna Abubakar and allied misinformation being disseminated by NIPOST in relation to Stamp Duties’ collection, which by law is the responsibility of the FIRS.” (NAN)