ABUJA – The Post Master-General, Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST), Malam Mori Baba, has called on all public and private organisations as well as citizens to comply with the stamp duties Act.
Baba made this appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
He explained that the law provided that receipts, documents and registrable instruments should be stamped using an adhesive postage stamp.
It also stipulated that all receipts valued at N4 and above were to be stamped using an adhesive stamp of the minimum postage rate of N50, he said.
According to him, NIPOST organised the recent two-day summit to remind the public of the existence of the stamp Act duties.
While recalling that the Act was promulgated during colonial era, the post master-general, however, said that nobody had been prosecuted for non-compliance with the law.
He described the summit as a success, noting that it would raise public awareness on the provisions of the law.
“The goal is to make Nigerians know about the act and be alive to their responsibilities under the act and for the courts to prosecute the defaulters.
“Well as far as I am concerned it has been a very huge success in the sense that the intention is to create awareness.
“The intention is not to accuse people or organisations on the issue of revenue generation and collection.
“The intention is to let people know and understand that there is a law and that law is to be respected, and should be complied with.
“And we also do know that in the event of that law not being complied with there should be sanctions.
“We have started the sensitisation and will continue to do this, and we do hope that we’ll have what it takes particularly with our partners to continue to create this awareness,’’ Baba said.[eap_ad_2]
On tax collection by NIPOST, Baba explained that the service was not collecting taxes but printing and distributing the instrument for collection of stamp duties.
“People believe that NIPOST is collecting tax but we tell them to understand that what we are doing is for us to remind them that there is a law that we are supposed to comply with.
“Most of the time people think that we are collecting tax, we are not.
“What NIPOST does is to produce an instrument that is supposed to be used for the stamping of protocol.
“Therefore, we are not collecting any tax. Citizens should understand that we are only producing an instrument to enforce the stamping protocol and not collecting additional taxes,’’ he said.
He said the stamp protocol help to authenticate documents about transaction that had taken place between two parties.
The Stamp Duties Act Cap.S8 LFN 2004 was originally enacted and enforced in the colonial era as the Stamp Duties Ordinance and came into force on April 1, 1939.
Government initiated the nationwide enforcement of the application revenue generating provisions of the Stamp Duties Act in 2004.
On the centenary stamps, the post master-general said NIPOST had already printed stamps to mark the centenary celebration.
“All that is left for us to do is to market these stamps,’’ said Baba. (NAN)[eap_ad_3]
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