Key highlight:
- Governor Okowa formally requested House of Assembly approval to request stamp duties.
- The Stamp Duties refund will be for the period of 2015-2022.
- The Governor added that the funds would be utilised for significant developmental projects.
The Delta State Government will formally request a refund of stamp duty payments from the Federal Government between the periods of January 2015 and December 2022.
This comes after the Delta State House of Assembly gave the State Government the approval to formally request the refunds after Governor Ifeanyi Okowa write a letter to the assembly asking for approval to submit relevant documents to the Governors’ Forum.
Okowa says the funds would be utilised for significant developmental projects by the state.
Approval
During the plenary session presided over by Deputy Speaker Christopher Ochor, chaired the process, as the House approved Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa’s request to formally approach the Federal Government for the refund of the backlog of stamp duties between January 2015 and December 2022.
The approval followed a motion by the Majority Leader, Mr Ferguson Onwo after Okowa in a letter to the assembly asked for approval to submit relevant documents to the Governors’ Forum, on or before Wednesday, April 12, 2023, saying:
- ”The necessary documents to be submitted by the respective state governments regarding the Stamp Duties Recovery and Refund are a letter of consent from the deduction of consultancy fee at source, Resolutions/Approval of the State Executive Council and Resolution of the State House of Assembly.
- ”I wish to take the advantage of the window of opportunity, by actively pursuing the process of accessing funds which had hitherto been denied the state, which can be utilised for the significant developmental projects by the state.”
The motion was unanimously adopted by the members, when it was put to a voice vote by the deputy speaker, including the Minority Leader, Mr Innocent Anidi, who seconded the motion.
Stamp Duties with FG
The Federal Government of Nigeria projected to generate N136.3 billion as revenue from Electronic Money Transfers (ETM) to be paid by bank customers in 2023. This is based on a projected 2.7 billion volume of eligible online transfers in the year.
The Budget Office of the Federation disclosed this in its 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy, saying the recently approved Regulations governing the administration of the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) are expected to boost collections of the revenue.
The government said it would also ensure proper monitoring of banks and other financial institutions to conduct reconciliation and to ensure deduction and remittance of the levy.
The revenue projection from the EMTL for next year is, however, lower than the current year’s target of N209.7 billion as set in the amended 2022 framework.
In 2021, the government had projected N500 billion in revenue from the levy but realised N111.84 billion at the end of the year.