BY VICTORIA ONU, ABUJA
THE Federal Inland Revenue Service has said it is still in charge of Stamp Duty collection in the country.
There have been publications in some newspapers and electronic/social media platforms misquoting a recent speech by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy on the administration of Stamp Duties in the country.
Based on the confusion arising from such publications, the FIRS, in a statement, said that the Minister was misquoted as saying that the administration of Stamp Duty was granted to NIPOST by the Finance Act 2020.
It said that the speech attributed to the Minister was definitely, and unfortunately, quoted out-of-context.
The statement said, “For the record, the Honourable Minister merely stated that NIPOST would henceforth produce the Adhesive Stamp required by FIRS to denote Stamp Duties.
“This position is in line with Section 2 of the Stamp Duties Act (as amended by Section 46 of the Finance Act 2020).
“The FIRS, therefore, urges taxpayers, tax practitioners and the general public to ignore this unfortunate attempt to cause confusion by twisting the Honourable Minister’s speech.
“The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, is a patriot with unarguable passion for the rule of law and stability of the country.”
The statement added that the FIRS remained the only federal agency permitted by law to collect Stamp Duties on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
It therefore urged all taxpayers to disregard the news and continue to pay their Stamp Duties charges to the FIRS nationwide.
