Bolaji Ogundele, Abuja
FORTY-THREE billion naira collected as Stamp Duties on domestic transactions by Nigerians is being kept with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Finance, Budget and National Planning Minister Mrs. Zainab Ahmed said on Wednesday.
The minister, who briefed reporters after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, said her Ministry sought approval for a project to manage duties waivers through an electronic portal.
On Tuesday, the Senate mandated its Committee on Finance to investigate why the N20 trillion collected by banks and other financial institutions as stamp duty revenue from 2013 to 2016 was not remitted to the Federation Account.
But, Mrs. Ahmed, in the company of the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, and the Minister of State for Health, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, spoke of the stamp duty revenue.
She explained that the Stamp Duties collected by commercial banks had to be warehoused at the CBN due to the legal battle over the custody of the fund between the Nigerian Postal Service (NPS) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
The minister, however, noted that the Finance Act recently passed by the National Assembly has rested the argument over who should be the custodian of the fund.
According to her, the amended Act has given the right to the FIRS.
Mrs. Ahmed said: “The stamp duties, up till now, have been a subject of litigation between the Nigerian Postal Service and Federal Inland Revenue Service. So, while the banks when you make any transfer charge you N50, these revenues were not accruing to government.
“I don’t have the facts that there will some funds being held by the commercial banks as well. The CBN has itself said that they are in holding of about N43 billion now, but in the new Finance Act recently passed by the two houses of the National Assembly, there is an amendment that is made to the Stamp Duties Act that relates to the mode of collection.
“The Finance Bill has made the FIRS as the collecting agency. So, that addresses the issue of the litigation. So, going forward, the revenue should be remitted as they are being collected, unlike what has happened in the past that the funds were kept in a special account because of the litigation that is going on.”
On the approval sought for the project, which is designed to manage an automated platform for the issuance of import duties exemption certificates as well as vehicle identification and registration number, the minister said the project would be run as a public/private partnership.
The minister said: “The Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning is responsible for the country’s national finance and one of our responsibilities is implementing fiscal incentives that are used to attract investors to promote non-oil exports as well as encourage industrialization program and stimulate growth in the economy.
“This portal will be managed by both the ministry as well as the Nigeria Custom Service. The vehicle identification number will be available to any user to access to find out information on vehicles.
“On our part, on the IDEC component, we will be able to see how much waivers have been granted to which sectors and also track the performers of those waivers and reduce the cost subsequently.
“The portal is undertaken in the form of a PPP between the Ministry of Finance and Messrs. Fore-core Technology Solutions Limited. They are to develop, deploy, manage and transferred back to the ministry. They are to be earning revenue, which is coming from IDEC application fee.
“We are going to share the revenue in the promotion of 90 percent to the government and 10 percent of Messrs. Forcore Technology Solutions limited. They are earning 10 per cent to enable recover the cost of deployment as well as the management because they will also be the ones managing the project over this 10 year period.”
Fashola said the Federal Government approved N40.4 billion for the construction of two roads in Kano and Bauchi states.
The minister identified the projects as part of the 2019 budget, adding that the variations for the contracts were also approved. He said the conflicts on two road contracts in Oyo and Ogun states have been sorted out.
Fashola said: “There are two of our contractors working in contiguous locations on the Ijebu-Igbo – Olomi road toward the Oyo State border which is in Ogun State, and also the Ijebu-Igbo/Ita-Igba – Owonowe to Ibadan connecting Oyo and Ogun states. So, Council approved the revision of the scope of work between the two contractors at the existing contract price.
“The other was the approval of two roads – the Tagwai- Kansa road to Doguwa in Kano for N8.436 billion and Alkaleri to Situk Road in Bauchi State for N32.015 billion. These are roads that we have in the 2019 budget. So, this is part of the implementation of the 2019 budget before the end of the year. Council also approved the variation.”
The Council also approved N307.9 million for the acquisition of 15 operational vehicles for the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Senator Mamora said.
“The approval was given by the council at the meeting today, contract under the Ministry of Health for the purchase of 15 operational vehicles by NAFDAC at the cost of N307.562 million which essentially are meant to improve mobility,” the minister of State for Health said.
