Emmanuel Adigwe
The Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) has rubbished reports by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) that NIPOST operated an illegal stamp duty account.
It will be recalled that the FIRS’s director of Communication and Liaison recently while responding to tweets by Chairperson of the Board of NIPOST, Mrs Maimuna Abubakar, disclosed said that the agency is more than ever “determined to not only ensure that all monies collected by NIPOST into its illegally operated Stamp Duties Account are fully remitted into the Federation Account” stressing that there is need to make sure that any kobo not accounted for in that account is legally recovered in line with the charge of President Muhammadu Buhari to the recently inaugurated Inter-ministerial committee on the recovery of stamp duties from 2016 till date.
However, in a statement on Sunday in Abuja, General Manager, Corporate Communications, NIPOST, Franklin Alao, described FIRS claims as untrue.
He said: “Historically, the Post in Nigeria, just like in the comity of nations, has at different times produced adhesive postage stamps and revenue stamps for the Federal Government.
“It is to this end that NIPOST seeks the proper implementation of the Finance Act. NIPOST is therefore taken aback when FIRS took to the tweeter to call out the Chairman, NIPOST Board, Barrister Maimuna Yaya Abubakar, who only tried to bring the attention of the Service and public that NIPOST would be emasculated if the Act is not properly implemented.
“More so when there was a meeting between FIRS and NIPOST in July 2013 in the office of the Executive Chairman of FIRS and resolution reached that “NIPOST is statutory duty-bound to provide the stamps to be used by FIRS at both federal and state levels. We wish to reassure members of the public that NIPOST as a responsible government institution has always operated within the ambit of the law. We, therefore, urge the general public to disregard the statement credited to the Director, Communication and Liaison, FIRS on the issue.”
