Nigeria loss over N4 trillion on stamp duty in ten years

By; MOHAMMED KAWU, Bauchi.
Nigeria is said to have lost over N4trillion as a result of stamp duty‎ non-compliance in various sectors, according to a lecturer with the National Open University (NOU) Bauchi Study Centre, Professor Ahmed Sale Gidado.
He said at the commemoration of the 2016 World Post Day at the Bauchi NIPOST Office Monday that non-compliance to the stamp duty by government and private establishments over the years has contributed a lot to massive loss of revenue being accrued to the government.
Gidado who is also the chairman of the occasion positioned, “In the Banking sector alone, government lost about N2 trillion to the same non implementation of the Stamp Duty Act in the last four years
He further enumerated that in the aviation‎ sector, about N5 billion has been lost or unaccounted for in the last four years, while Transportation sector and Ports Authority are equally considered to be among the worst culprits in the stamp duty implementation default.
“It was estimated that about N2 trillion had been lost in the last three years in these sector. All these are structured areas where government can easily track and route stamp duty revenue to the treasury”, he stated
Professor Ahmed Sale Gidado therefore urged the Federal Government to reform and restructure NIPOST in order to help shore up its revenue base as well as provide employment through an effective Stamp Duty ‎Act implementation.
In his remarks, the NIPOST regional manager, Zoaka Habu Mohammed said that the agency is operating in a very competitive business‎ environment aided by globalization and characterized by market liberalization and emerging new technologies which demands constant innovation to go with times.
“Yet the post exists and has been able to make its mark in the sand of time. From sending and receiving of letters and parcels to transactions in financial instruments, the post has been able to touch the lives of all categories of people all over the world by taking advantage of new technologies and introduced the ICT into all aspects of its services”, Habu said.