Uche Usim, Abuja
In its efforts to expand the Federal Government’s non-oil revenue base, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Tuesday, disclosed it now generates over N3 billion revenue weekly from stamp duty collection.
The Executive Chairman of the Service, Mr Muhammad Nami, made the disclosure in Abuja when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance. The stamp duty is deducted by banks during various transactions on behalf of the FIRS.
The meeting at the lower legislative chamber was convened to immediately address the disagreement between the FIRS and the Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) over stamp duty collection, and the fate of the N58 billion revenue generated from February 2016 to April 2020. The session, superintended by the Chairman, Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, Mr James Abiodun Faleke, had in attendance other members of the committee, the Post-Master General of the Federation Dr. Ismail Adebanjo Adewusi, NIPOST Board Chairman, Maimuna Yaya Abubarkar and other top officials of the postal agency and the FIRS . Nami, in his presentation, attributed the improvement in stamp duty collection by banks to the deployment of a new technology, Application Programming Interface (API), which tracks, captures and channels such revenue straight into the federation account. According to him, the API solution is an online real-time technology that makes collection of stamp duties very seamless. The FIRS boss said that when he assumed office in December 2019, he discovered over N30 billion in the NIPOST stamp duty account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The account was opened in 2016 specifically to warehouse revenue from stamp duty collection.