Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami(SAN), has written the 36 State Governors requesting their compliance with auditors assigned to recover backlogs of stamp duty from January 15th, 2016 to June 30th, 2020.
This was made know on Wednesday in a statement by Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu the Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations to the Attorney General of Federation and Minister of Justice.
The letters stated that, “Pursuant to Mr. President’s approval and directives, I also wish to request Your Excellency to direct the State Ministries, Departments, Agencies, and Regulatory Institutions of Financial Sector to engage and grant access to the appointed Recovery Agents for the purpose of the Audit and Recovery of Stamp Duty to ensure that all established liabilities are remitted as appropriate.”
“The recoveries are being conducted for the Federal Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Financial Institutions. At this stage liabilities are being established, and no actual recovery has been made.”
According to the statement “Section 111 of the Stamp Duty Act granted the Attorney General of the Federation an exclusive power to recover any outstanding payment or remittances related to stamp duty.”
The letters were written pursuant to the provision of Section 111 of the Stamp Duty Act which provides that “all duties, fines, penalties and debts due to the Government of the Federation imposed by this Act shall be recoverable in a summarily manner in the name of the Attorney General of the Federation or the State”.
Gwandu stated that what the Attorney General of the Federation did was to activate those powers, conduct the audit and recovery of back years stamp duty in collaboration with stakeholders.
He said the Federal Government of Nigeria has set up an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Audit and Recovery of Backlog of Stamp Duties from January 15th, 2016 to June 30th,2020.
According to him, members of the committee were drawn from Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice in collaboration with relevant Agencies including the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria, Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Allocation Commission, among others.
The Statement said in view of the need to provide a comprehensive overview of the process and to proper understanding the task, the Attorney General of the Federation had organized a meeting with Attorneys General of States who have similar powers with respect of stamp duty of Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Financial Institutions in their respective states.