The Nigerian government says it is targeting about N1tn annually from stamp duty collection.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, disclosed this at the official inauguration of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on audit and recovery of previous stamp duties and the launch of the Federal Inland Revenue Service Adhesive Stamp in Abuja.
Mustapha, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari at the event, also said plans were in place to recover a backlog of unremitted Stamp Duty Tax in the last six years.
He said, “In the face of dwindling oil revenue, and the global shift away from oil-dependent technological products, it is even more compelling now to begin to think out of the box in order to safeguard the future of our country. Therefore, this administration has resolved to widen the revenue base by activating stamp duties revenue collection which has been neglected for more than 20 years.
“I hereby also direct and request that all relevant MDAs, particularly the Central Bank of Nigeria, NIBBS, MDBs, FIRS, NIPOST should give maximum cooperation to the Committee in the discharge of its mandate.”
He said Buhari had directed all recoveries made by the committee to be remitted to the appropriate stamp duty account maintained by the government with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Also, at the event, the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Nami, disclosed that stamp duty collection by the agency from January to June 29 rose to N66bn from the collection between January and December 2019 which was N18bn.
He attributed the increase to the dynamism triggered by the Finance Act 2019, and the deployment of technology and stakeholders’ collaboration.
