Remember the trouble caused by the N8.8 billion that a court-ordered GTBank to pay Innoson Motors?
Well, there will be more trouble for 22 more banks, possibly including GTBank, very soon.

This is because a Federal Government agency, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), has vowed to probe commercial banks for collecting illegal stamp duty.

The money, according to the RMAFC, has reached over N100billion.
A statement by the Commission’s spokesperson, Ibrahim Mohammed, on Sunday, said the probe would involve a forensic investigation of the funds collected as stamp duty by 22 Deposit Money Banks (DMB) between the year 2000 and last year.

RMAFC said commercial banks have been deducting the sum of N50 on every deposit with a value of N1, 000 and above since January 2000.  At the moment, the total sum of N33 billion has been realised through the collection of stamp duties which falls far below the expectation of stakeholders.

It said it expected that at the end of the exercise, over N100 billion would be recovered from the banks.

It did not mention the 22 banks.

The RMAFC statement said: “Arrangements have been made to engage the services of reputable forensic audit firms to carry out the probe of the banks.

“The probe will be comprehensive as it will cover the affixed stamp used on cheque books prior to the introduction of electronic transactions.”

In the same vein, the Commission observed that “if NIPOST is properly repositioned through the appropriate legal and regulatory framework and the introduction of appropriate technology, the Agency can generate over N500 billion.”

RMAFC appealed to the National Assembly and the Federal Government to initiate measures for the amendment of the NIPOST Act to enable it to expand the economy and attract more revenue.

Besides the planned probe, RMAFC has also embarked on the reconciliation of signature bonuses and other miscellaneous revenues from the oil and gas industry “to enable the Commission to engage other stakeholders with a view to reducing revenue leakages and enhance remittance into the Federation Account.”

The Commission has approached other stakeholders, especially the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for support.

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