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The Senate is accusing banks and other financial institutions in the country of not remitting N20 trillion realised from the sale of stamp duties to the Federal Government.
        The Senate has mandated its Committee on Finance to investigate the non-remittance of over N20 trillion into the Federation Account by Central Bank of Nigeria, an amount collected as stamp duties from Banks and Financial Institutions in the country. The decision to probe the non-remittance of stamp duties was reached sequel to the consideration of a motion on “The need to improve Internally Generated Revenue of the Federal Government of Nigeria through non-oil revenue”. Sponsor of the motion, Senator Ayo Akinyelure (PDP, Ondo Central), said that the Central Bank of Nigeria had in January 2016, issued a circular directing all banks and financial institutions to charge stamp duty of N50 on lodgments into current accounts against revenue projections by the Federal Government of N2.5 trillion annually. He noted that after the issuance of the said circular by the CBN, all deposit money banks and financial institutions effected N50 per eligible transaction in accordance with the provisions of the Stamp Duty Act 2004 and Federal government Financial Regulations 2009. According to him, despite efforts by the Federal Government to recover over N20 trillion from Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBBS) to the Federation Account, “the Central Bank of Nigeria and NIBBS have technically refused to comply with the Presidential directives for the recovery of over N20 trillion revenue into the coffers of government. Akinyelure added, “The CBN and NIBSS deliberately failed to cooperate and comply with the directives of Mr. President for the realization of over N20 trillion revenue due from stamp duties collected for 2013 to 2016 and subsequently over N5 trillion minimum revenue due to be collected annually to the Federation account to be shared among States of the Federation for infrastructural and economic development. The lawmaker lamented that since the implementation of the collection of stamp duties, “accountability by banks has not been transparent and no report by CBN or its subsidiary NIBS to the Nigerian public to know the actual revenue generated, collected and transferred to the Federation Account.”