REPS TO PROBE STAMP DUTY COLLECTIONS

The House of Representatives has mandated its committee on telecommunications to liaise with the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) to ascertain the total amount collected so far as stamp duty charges of N50 per transaction.

The committee is to also ascertain where the money has been deposited and report back within four weeks.

Adopting a motion by Rep Odeneye Kehinde Olusegun (APC, Ogun), the House said since a Federal Government’s directive to banks and other financial institutions to begin the collection of N50 stamp duty on every transaction, nothing has been heard from NIPOST about the whereabouts of the money.

The House said based on government’s directive, each bank was to open a dedicated account for NIPOST stamp duty into which all collected charges would be paid and subsequently transferred to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Adopting another motion by Rep Chidi Frank Wihioka (APC, Rivers), the House urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) to urgently commence the process of compensating victims of a gas pipeline explosion at Evekwu on February 22, 2017