Economy
Reps Wade Into FIRS, NIPOST Stamp Duty Collection Spat
By Adedapo Adesanya
The House of Representatives has taken a huge step to resolve the public spat between the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) over the rightful collector of the stamp duty for the federal government.
Recently, Chairman of the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, Mr James Faleke, held a session to broker a truce between the two government agencies over the stamp duty matter.
At the meeting, the lawmaker explained that the lower chamber of the National Assembly was determined to resolve the face-off between the FIRS and the NIPOST and the fate of the N58 billion revenue generated from February 2016 to April 2020.
Both the FIRS Chairman, Mr Muhammad Nami, and the Postmaster-General/Chief Executive Officer of NIPOST, Mr Ismail Adewusi, who appeared at the panel on Tuesday described the feud as unnecessary and unhelpful, conceding that it could have been handled in a better way.
“The FIRS regrets that as agencies of the government, FIRS and NIPOST allowed a simple situation to degenerate to media exposure,’ Mr Nami said.
“It is regrettable that the differences in who controls stamp duty collection between both NIPOST and FIRS had degenerated to a public spat between the two agencies. This is unnecessary and unhelpful,” he added.
The FIRS Chairman said on assumption of office in December 2019, the tax regulatory agency discovered over N30 billion had accumulated in the NIPOST Stamp Duty Account with the CBN.
He said the account opened in 2016 was specifically to keep revenue from stamp duty collection. On a weekly basis, Mr Nami said the FIRS has been generating N3 billion revenue from stamp duty collection from banks from May 2020.
However, by April 2020, he said the balance in the account had grown to N58 billion because of the deployment of the Application Programming Interface (API) by the FIRS. He said by May 2020, money in the stamp duty account was transferred to the federation account following instructions given to the CBN by the body.
Since then, Mr Nami said both the FIRS and the NIPOST have been at each other’s throats over who controls stamp duty collection and the accruals from the collection.
The FIRS chief said the FIRS was able to generate that much revenue from a single stream of stamp duty collection from deposit money banks due to deployment of a new technology to track and capture such revenue straight into the federation account.
Mr Nami explained that the API solution has made it possible for an online real-time technology that makes the collection of stamp duties easier.
On the part of NIPOST, Mr Adewusi made his case saying the responsibility of procuring stamp rests on NIPOST as part of its mandate stated cleverly in the law.
He said: ‘The issue is, the Finance Act, 2019 did not in any way stop NIPOST from its mandate. In spite of the amendment to the Finance Act, it has not affected the responsibility of NIPOST. There is no fight between NIPOST and FIRS over tax collection.
“The responsibility of procuring stamp rests with NIPOST, which is entitled to its share of the stamp duty proceeds it collected and domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from 2016 to 2020.
“All the monies that accrued to the account include proceeds of stamp sales. In the spirit of peace, we want FIRS to look at the issue more equitably.
“We deserve in sharing the cost of collection. At the initial meeting, FIRS said they will give us 30 per cent and take 70 per cent, we said no.”
After hearing both sides of the story, Mr Faleke said it would not be proper for the committee to just take a decision, adding that it would need to go back and look at all legal issues raised and reconvene on a later date.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited depreciated further by 0.44 per cent on Wednesday as selling pressure continued as investors monitor happenings in Rivers State, where pipeline explosion and political crisis triggered a state of emergency by President Bola Tinubu.
Investor sentiment was weak at midweek as Customs Street ended with 37 price losers and 13 price gainers, representing a negative market breadth index.
Livestock Feeds lost 10.00 per cent to trade at N8.46, eTranzact declined by 9.40 per cent to N5.30, Coronation Insurance slumped by 9.27 per cent to N2.35, MRS Oil shed 8.99 per cent to settle at N162.00, and May and Baker crashed by 8.05 per cent to N8.00.
On the flip side, Julius Berger appreciated by 8.47 per cent to N137.00, Omatek gained 6.15 per cent to close at 69 Kobo, UPDC rose by 2.69 per cent to N3.05, Wema Bank expanded by 2.43 per cent to N10.55, and Unilever Nigeria improved by 2.12 per cent to N38.50.
Business Post reports that all the key sectors witnessed profit-taking except the industrial goods space, which closed flat.
The insurance counter went down by 1.62 per cent, the banking index lost 1.37 per cent, the energy space shed 1.32 per cent, the commodity sector tumbled by 0.45 per cent, and the consumer goods industry shrank by 0.09 per cent.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) contracted by 460.56 points to 104,915.13 points from 105,375.69 points and the market capitalisation dropped N288 billion to finish at N65.790 trillion compared with Tuesday’s value of N66.078 trillion.
The market recorded a turnover of 1.4 billion stocks worth N12.4 billion in 12,012 deals versus the 350.0 million stocks valued at N8.2 billion traded in 11,230 deals in the preceding session, indicating a surge in the trading volume, value and number of deals by 290.46 per cent, 51.22 per cent, and 6.96 per cent, respectively.
The busiest equity yesterday was Sovereign Trust Insurance with the sale of 1.0 billion units for N989.0 million, Fidelity Bank transacted 42.8 million units worth N723.2 million, Access Holdings exchanged 30.6 million units valued at N698.0 million, Jaiz Bank sold 24.0 million units worth N85.0 million, and Zenith Bank traded 21.6 million units valued at N1.0 billion.
By Dipo Olowookere
The president of Dangote Industries Limited, Mr Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that Nigeria was now self-sufficient in cement and fertilizer, with the surplus being exported to earn foreign exchange (FX), which the country desperately needs to boost the Naira and the economy.
He said the target of his company is to make the nation self-sufficient in whatever it consumes, noting that his Lagos-based refinery is currently meeting domestic demand for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol.
After a meeting with the governor of Ogun State, Mr Dapo Abiodun, the industrialist, said he would continue to invest in the country.
Mr Dangote was in Ogun State to finalise plans to build a multi-billion-dollar seaport and two new lines of cement plant with a capacity of 6.0 million metric tons per annum, (Mta) at Itori.
The richest man in Africa said he was attracted to Ogun State because of the investor-friendly climate in the state and the policies of Mr Abiodun.
He recounted how his predecessor, Mr Ibikunle Amosun, frustrated his efforts to invest in Ogun State, saying, “We had earlier abandoned our vision of investing in the Olokola Free Trade Zone (OKFTZ), but because of your policies and investor-friendly environment, I want to say we are back and will work with the state government to return to Olokola, and plans are underway to construct the largest port in the country.”
“Our factory at Itori was pulled down twice. When we started the second time, they not only demolished the factory but also the fence, so we left. But right now, because of His Excellency, our governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, we are back. When you visit the factory, you will be surprised at what we have done,” he stated.
In his remarks, Mr Abiodun described the day the Dangote Refinery groundbreaking was performed in Lagos as “the day of heartbreak for the sons and daughters of Ogun State as they watched helplessly on television.”
But he thanked Mr Dangote for “coming back to Ogun State” to invest after his earlier bad experience, saying, “We welcome your return to the state” to complete the cement factor at Itori.
The Governor emphasized that with the establishment of the Itori cement plant, proposed to produce six million metric tons of cement per annum, and the existing Ibeshe plant, producing 12 million metric tons, cement production in the state would total 18 million metric tons per annum, making it the largest cement producer in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.
He lauded the company for not shirking its Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSRs) to the host communities, just as it is currently constructing the Inter-change-Papalato-Ilaro road, assuring that his administration is ready to work with the conglomerate for the good of the state and the nation as a whole.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The $20 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos has announced the suspension of the sales of petroleum products in Naira.
This action came after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited halted its Naira-for-crude oil agreement with the company and other local refiners.
Last month, the state-owned oil agency said it would stop selling crude oil to Dangote Refinery in Naira from the end of this month, claiming its deals was for six months, from October 2024 to March 2025.
This came after the private refinery triggered a price war with the NNPC, crashing the price of premium motor spirit (PMS) to N825 per litre from its depots.
The NNPC operates in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry but the Dangote Refinery only has partners like MRS Oil, Ardova Plc, and Heyden, which sell its products to customers at retail prices.
In a statement signed by its management of Wednesday, Dangote Refinery it temporarily halted the sale of petroleum products in Naira “to avoid a mismatch between our sales proceeds and our crude oil purchase obligations, which are currently denominated in U.S. dollars.”
“To date, our sales of petroleum products in Naira have exceeded the value of Naira-denominated crude we have received.
“As a result, we must temporarily adjust our sales currency to align with our crude procurement currency,” it stated.
“We remain committed to serving the Nigerian market efficiently and sustainably. As soon as we receive an allocation of Naira-denominated crude cargoes from NNPC, we will promptly resume petroleum product sales in Naira,” the statement emphasised.
The company also debunked reports that it stopped loading from its facility “due to an incident of ticketing fraud.”
Dangote Refinery described these reports as “malicious falsehood,” noting that its systems “are robust and we have had no fraud issues.”
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