By Bassey Udo
The lingering controversy over alleged missing N89 trillion Stamp duty recovery has absolutely nothing to do with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), its spokesperson, Osita Nwanisobi, has clarified.
The apex bank’s spokesperson made the clarification on Thursday in Abuja while reacting to insinuations by a member of the House of Representatives, Muhammed Kazaure.
Kazaure featured as a guest on Brekete Family Radio Programme 101.1FM, Abuja to discuss the activities of the Committee constituted by the President to work towards the recovery of the money he claimed was missing.
The lawmaker had raised an alarm over the proceeds of stamp duty collection, which he said he was in possession of valid documents to prove the existence of the funds in the custody of the CBN.
Kazaure had accused the apex bank of withholding and refusing to remit the funds into the coffers of the Federal Government as tax at a time the government was in dire need of funds to finance the budget.
Following the huge interest generated by the allegation, President Muhamadu Buhari had in June this year constituted a presidential committee on the recovery of stamp duty from 2015 to date, with Kazaure as Secretary.
On Tuesday, the Presidency in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Garba Shehu, described the allegations as “baseless and misleading.” Earlier on Sunday, Shehu had dismissed Kazaure’s claims as “a figment of his imagination.”
Giving a background to the issue, Shehu explained that on coming to office 2015, President Buhari discovered that a law, which stipulated the collection of a token on all banking transactions, was in existence, but was not correctly implemented.
Shehu pointed out that the anomaly arose, because certain characters apparently formed a cartel with collaborators in the Nigerian Postal Service, (NIPOST) to illegally collect and pocket stamp duties.
Following a series of reports about the development, particularly from non-government organisations which alleged that between 2013 and 2016, the government lost over N20 trillion through the Nigerian Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS) owned by the CBN and all licensed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in the country.
The NGOs had claimed consultants could recover and remit to the coffers of the government if the government agreed to pay a professional fee of 7.5 percent of the amount under the supervision of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).
The consultants were said to have failed to recover the money, resulting in the late Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, writing on March 8, 2018 to the SGF to convey a presidential directive for the activities of the consultants be discontinued.
Despite a strong denial by the presidency of Kazaure’s claims, the lawmaker insisted the commercial banks that collected the money on behalf of the government had since remitted 60 percent to the government treasury, while the balance of 40 percent went into private pockets.
While answering questions during the Brekete Radio Family Programme monitored from Abuja, Kazaure had accused the the financial sector regulator of misappropriating the funds he claimed totalled about N89 trillion.
However, the CBN spokesperson who was called on telephone by the anchor to react to claims by Kazaure, expressed shock at the law maker’s claims on the issue.
“We have been hearing these allegations for some time, but its sounds stranger than fiction. They said N89 trillion stamp duty accumulated. But I know that the total assets for Nigerian banks is about N63 trillion. Yet, someone is claiming that fifty kobo accumulated to N89 trillion. I ask, how possible is it? Over how many years? Nwanisobi said.
“If there is any committee in charge, that has nothing to do with us (CBN). The committee can do their work, but their work has nothing to do with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“Our most concern is the N89 trillion, and the total assets of all the banks in Nigeria is not up to that amount,” he added.
He said the publication, which claimed that transactions by CBN on the Import & Export window hit $171billion, was false, pointing out the I & E window was a platform where people from different sectors of the country’s economy trade in foreign exchange ( FX).
“It is not an account. So, banks come there to trade, CBN comes in also as an observer. We either buy or sell there, because it is a platform. When amounts like these are heard of, I think it’s a little bit of a misunderstanding of what I & E window stands for, because it’s a platform for trading and people come in there to buy, sell and stock.
“The 40:60 (N100) ratio stamp DUTY was in obedience to the law. Issues around stamp duty amounts was to be obedience to the law. This is not about CBN, but obeying what the law says. CBN is the creation of the law, and that is why we say, CBN is an institution with statutory flavour.
“Our responsibility is to keep up with the law. The law states that the act on stamp duty must be obeyed, and that is what it does. We keep records of all transactions, that is why whenever we hear such allegations, we are shocked.”
Nwanisobi said the committee constituted by the President to attempt to recover the funds was not approved by CBN, nor did the CBN set up a committee, despite being set up by President Muhammadu Buhari. And the issue of the committee has been addressed by the committee also.
