The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has clarified that it has nothing to do with the lingering controversy over the alleged missing N89 trillion Stamp duty recovery.
Osita Nwanisobi, Director of Corporate Communications of the Central Bank of Nigeria
made the clarification on in Abuja while reacting to insinuations by a member of the House of Representatives, Muhammed Kazaure.
The Honourable member had 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 purported missing money.
Kazaure had raised the alarm over the proceeds of stamp duty collection, which he claimed to be in possession of valid documents to prove the funds were in the custody of the CBN.
The lawmaker 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 its developmental projects.
Following the controversy generated by the allegation, President Muhamadu Buhari had in June constituted a presidential committee on the recovery of stamp duty from 2015 to date, with Kazaure as Secretary.
However, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Garba Shehu, the Presidency described the allegations as “baseless and misleading,” while Shehu had earlier dismissed Kazaure’s claims as “a figment of his imagination.”
Throwing more light on the issue, Shehu explained that on coming to office in 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.
He explained 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 the funds to the coffers of the government if the government agreed to pay a professional fee of 7.5 per cent 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 to be discontinued.
However, in spite of a strong rebuttal 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 per cent to the government treasury, while the balance of 40 per cent went into private pockets.
Answering questions during the Brekete Radio Family Programme monitored from Abuja, Kazaure had accused the apex bank of misappropriating the funds he claimed totalled about N89 trillion.
In light of this, Mr Nwanisobi who was called on the telephone by the anchor to react to claims by Hon. Kazaure, expressed shock at the lawmaker’s claims on the issue.
He said, “We have been hearing these allegations for some time, but it sounds stranger than fiction. They said N89 trillion stamp duty accumulated. But I know that the total assets of Nigerian banks are about N63 trillion. Yet, someone is claiming that fifty kobo accumulated to N89 trillion. I ask, how possible is it; over how many years?
“If there is any committee in charge that has nothing to do with us, CBN. The committee can do their work, but its 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”.
Mr Nwanisobi pointed out that the publication, which claimed that transactions by CBN on the Import & Export window hit $171 billion, was false, noting that 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, and 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 were to be in 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 a 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 recover the funds was neither approved by the 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.
SO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
N89trn stamp duty recovery palaver misleading, not about us, says CBN
