This is just as the committee berated management of Skye Bank Plc over refusal to remit the duty collected from March 2016 to the CBN in line with the administration of the system.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon Saheed Akinade-Fijabi disclosed that both the Finance Minister and the CBN Governor would have to explain details of funds accrued to the apex bank in the name of stamp duty charge its remittances.
The resolution followed the submission of the Director of Finance and Investment of NIPOST, Mr Zhigun Shaba Usman before the Committee that a cumulative amount of N13.4 billion had been deposited to the CBN by the commercial banks.
Although, Usman doubted the credibility of the figure as remitted, as he said NIPOST had concluded arrangement to audit the banks.
Usman said, “the remittances by the banks increased in geometrical progression after NIPOST announced its intention to audit the accounts.
“We had concluded plans to do what the parliament is doing, as at December 2016, what was collected was N3.4bn But things improve after January 2017, when we decided to place advert calling on credible audit firms to come and edit the banks. From January till date, N10bn has been remitted and 2017 has not ended, so there is an improvement.”
Also, the committee has summoned the management of Skye Bank Plc. Tover the failure of the bank to remit its deductions to the CBN from March 2016.
This followed the revelation of the Representative of the Bank, Mr Pious Olawoye that the bank had created a separate account for the deductions due to legal issues between their customers and the CBN on the duty charge.
According to Olatoye, “after the January 2016 deduction was remitted to the CBN in February, Skye Bank stopped its remittances to the CBN, pending the determination of the legal matters.
“Some of our customers have sued CBN over the legality of the Stamp Duty charges, due to this, we created a separate account and keep further deductions pending determination of the court case.
“If the case is decided in favour of CBN, we will remit accordingly, and if it is decided against CBN, we will have to refund our customers.”
Speaking before adjourning the sitting, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon Akinade- Fijabi vowed that all the banks discovered to have short-changed both the customers and the Federal Government would be made to pay to the last Kobo.
The chairman expressed dismay why such huge amount of money would be kept idle in banks’ vaults while Nigerians would be left to go to beds at the end without food.
and then