Reps indict 16 banks over non-remittance of N1.5b stamp duties

The House of Representatives yesterday indicted 16 deposit money banks (DMBs) for allegedly failing to remit N1.586 billion to the Federation Account.

This followed an earlier report that members of the House of Representatives have concluded arrangements to indict the DMBs.

Adopting the report of the Abubakar Yunusa Ahmad led Ad-Hoc Committee, which probed the issue during plenary presided over by Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, the House charged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sanction the banks found wanting for the infractions.

The lawmakers insisted that such banks should be made to pay the amounts they under remitted or failed to remit from 2015 to date with the accrued interests.

The banks and the amounts they failed to remit are, GTBank  (N198.3m); Standard Chartered Bank (N3.6m); CitiBank (N1.8m); Stanbic IBTC (N231m); Zenith Bank (N265.6m); Provident Bank (N646, 650); Fidelity Bank (N33m) and Keystone Bank (N25m).

Others are UBA (N81m); Ecobank (N78.5m); Diamond Bank (N546m); Unity Bank (N40m); Jaiz Bank (N2.4m); Access Bank (N66m); Skye Bank (N11m) and Polaris Bank (N2.9m).

Members of the committee noted that in view of the lack of transparency on the part of most financial institutions, the CBN should strengthen its supervisory activities to ensure that banks report and remit all government revenues correctly and promptly.

The House further directed that all banks found not to have made full disclosure of their Stamp Duty collections and remittances when it probed the matter should be further investigated.

It particularly recommended that First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Plc, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Wema Bank and Suntrust Bank should be further investigated.