By Joshua Egbodo Abuja
Post Master General of Nigeria, and Chief Executive Offi cer of the Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST), Bar. Adebisi Adegbuyi has declared that the Act establishing the Service, and the Stamp Duties have become grossly obsolete. Th e Post Master General who stated this at a public hearing on a bill seeking to repeal the NIPOST Act, by reenacting the Nigerian Postal Commission Act, and another seeking amendment to the Stamp duties Act, organized by the House of Representatives Committee on Telecommunications yesterday, said the nation’s business landscape had been tremendously aff ected by information technology, “thus the need to upgradeapplicable provisions” of the laws.
Specifi cally on the Stamp Duties Act, Adegbuyi said there were several core challenges that have necessitated the amendment the call for amendment of the extant law, including the need to provide answers to whether the use of an adhesive postage or electronic stamp to denote a document or receipt, or registrable instrument amount to thepayment of stamp duty tax. He said it was also not correct to assume that the provision of adhesive postage or electronic stamps by NIPOST infringe on the powers of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, or State Inland Revenue Sevice, as “the same Stamp Duties Act prescribes the taxes to be collected by FIRS or SIRS, or the Customs Sevice…”.
In his recommendations for amendment to the Act, Adegbuyi said innovations such as the Internet and the POS machine have been captured as receiving medium, whose electronically generated receipts are to be denoted, and that graded fi nancial penalties have been introduced for a fi rst off ender, a second off ender, a third and subsequent off ender.
In its opinion, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), represented by its Director of Legal Services, Mr Johnson Akinkunmi though expressed support for the bills, but cautioned that care must be taken that electronic payment platform users are not discouraged through taxes, as this may work against the apex bank’s cashless policy currently in operation. Earlier, Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, who was represented to declare the event open by the Chief Whip, Alhassan Doguwa, said “the world is being constantly shaped by innovations in ICT”, and that as lawmakers, they are therefore determined to make laws that will help agencies maximize their potentials
