THE Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) in partnership with the School of Banking Honours (SBH) has appointed three banks to lead the revival of N50-stamping on all bank receipts, in the form of bank tellers and electronic transfers with values of N1, 000 and above.

The banks, which are First Bank Plc, Stambic IBTC Bank and Unity Bank, will lead other Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), as well as, other Financial Institutions (OFIs) on the stamp-duty initiative, as mandated by the Stamp Duty Act 2004 (amended in 2010) and NIPOST Act 2004.

When fully implemented in the banking industry, the process would rake in about N50 billion into government’s coffers and create 20, 000 new employment every year, SBH Project Consultant, Adetola Adekoya said in Lagos at the weekend.

Briefing reporters at a forum attended by officials of SBH and Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Systems Plc (NIBSS) among others, Adekoya said the initiative was part of the establishing mandate of the postal agency, though had often been disenfranchised over the years.

As with all other government agencies, Adekoya noted, NIPOST had obtained appropriate clearance from the sole regulator of banking services, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to engage banks and other financial institutions (BOFIs) on improving the administration of its statutory mandate.

He said, “some of us may recollect on the domestic level, for instance, how receipts issued by landlords to tenants would not be complete without fixing postage stamps on them. This dated back to the time when legacy agency, Post and Telecommunications (P&T) Department that birthed NITEL and NIPOST was charged with such responsibility.

“It must, however, be noted that this initiative on improving the administration of the laws did not originate from the CBN, but from NIPOST, to seriously address poor compliance of members of the public on its statutory mandate,” he said.

Fielding questions from reporters, Adekoya further said it was not an attempt to resurrect archaic laws, rather to raise compliance level on existing laws that had gone down drastically, with detrimental effect to continued existence of NIPOST, as the sole government agency charged with affixing postage stamps to transaction receipts under the laws.

He observed that similar compliance on the stamp-duty laws had improved in the capital market in the last three years, while other sectors like the custom and immigration were promising.

“The train of progress has now pro-actively reached BOFIs, given the many ongoing reforms in the banking sector and their importance to the economy. NIPOST is also coming up with this reform to remain relevant in reforms such as the cashless policy. It is not an undue increase on financial burden on citizens, but it is a law of the country that must be obeyed,” he said.

The Stamp Duty Act 2004 was amended in 2010, with amount chargeable per transaction receipt increasing from erstwhile N40 to N50, irrespective of amount involved over the N1, 000 baseline.

The law also covers loan agreements, deposit agreements, staff employment contracts, staff promotion letters, purchase order agreements, and any other agreement covered by the laws. Exceptions to this rule are bank tellers “receiving” cheques, drafts and any other negotiable instrument that are already duty stamped.

Legal Adviser SBH, ’Dimeji Idowu added that legal documents would not be perfect unless the duty stamp was applied by the public, to avoid unpleasant consequences.

He explained that the provision was provided for in the Law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2010 in section 89 and penalty for defaulters contained in section 92 of the Act.

“All agencies of government were established by the law to sustain them. The government is saying, but because the laws guiding NIPOST were not obeyed, the postal agency is having problem. Government is now telling the agency to up its games and enforce the laws to remain afloat. We all need NIPOST, so we must help sustain it,” he said.

Head, Strategy and Marketing NIBSS Plc, Samuel Oluyemi added that the financial inclusion policy of the CBN was taking care of to avert double charges on transactions.

According to him, “government is looking at agency servicing by NIPOST among other strategies to sustain the agency. The stamp duty act has been since 1939 and we believe this is a process that must work. It is the discretion of NIPOST, coming from its enabling act. NIPOST is waking up to its responsibilities and we all must support it,” he said.

Adekoya further said that SBH, as a pioneer tertiary banking school accredited by both the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) and listed by Joint Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB), would be working closely with banks and OFIs to partner in creating a poll of skilled diplomats/re-skilled graduates for the industry, while also attracting and engaging the skilled-pool with shadow-banking jobs.