NIBSS, government’s agent feud over $53b stamp duty claims

The School of Banking Honours (SBH) has expressed worry over lack of cooperation by the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) in efforts to recover about $53.3 billion unremitted stamp duty revenue on interbank electronic transactions by banks and other financial institutions.SBH, the approved agent of the Federal Government for the recovery of unremitted stamp duty revenue said failure to access the funds is robbing the country of huge amounts of money yearly.
 
The agency insisted that the issue had been there since the inception of NIBSS as the agency responsible for interbank transactions since 1993.An assessed non-remittance of stamp duty charges to the Federal Government by SBH led to their appointment on October 12, 2017, by President Muhammadu Buhari to recover the said unremitted funds in partnership with the International Investment Law and Arbitration.
 
So far, SBH’s efforts to access the due revenue from stamp duty on online bank transactions, which it also alleged has been diverted into private pockets, has pitched it against NIBSS.Project Consultant and Chief Executive Officer, SBH, Tola Adekoya, said based on research findings, his agency had raised a demand notice dated March 10, 2015 to NIBSS.The notice, titled: “Stamp Duties on Electronic Transfer Receipts (2013-2014)” for N7.719 trillion, was due in 2015, as accumulated and unremitted revenue to the Federal Government and the states.

“SBH is using the instrumentality of the government to harass NIBSS, which is doing its legitimate business and we would resist them. SBH should go to the banks for anything they need concerning stamp duties,” he said.The lawyer also argued that the only agency that the banks have had since the introduction of CBN’s ‘cash-less policy’ was NIBSS, admitting that SBH had done nothing wrong by coming to NIBSS, which is the central electronic platform for banking transactions in the country, restating the need for everyone to collaborate and support government’s revenue drive.
 
But Adekoya added: “We are not saying that NIBSS is a bank or that we are interested in NIBSS bank accounts. We are interested in interbank transactions accounts that passed through its central switch. We served the demand notice because NIBSS is the agent of banks that handles their transactions.

“Banks don’t have any power over NIBSS, once they ascertain a liability, they debit the banks immediately and that is why NIBSS is going to be a strategic partner in recovering the unremitted stamp duty revenue.“It was indicated in the first paragraph of the letter sent to CBN and NIBSS that we should commence with NIBSS and that is what we are doing. We are following due process.”