Access Bank and the Irregular Debit
The Nigerian government, in conjunction with the Central Bank of Nigeria, seems to have implemented some rules to condition the citizens to pay some Stamp Duties on all forms of electronic notifications in a bid to acknowledge receipts of funds. This includes SMS and messages on any electronic platform such as emails and Whatsapp messages. Following this, there has been an ongoing random and irregular debit from some Nigerian Banks with the aim of having the citizens pay their taxes. Among the banks that have commenced the implementation of this new development are Access Bank Plc, FCMB, Eco Bank, Zenith Bank, etc.
Access Bank, one of the most popular banks in Nigeria, has raised people’s eyebrows by engaging in random and irregular debiting of some cash from their customers without prior notification. Just recently, almost all Nigerians who have an account with the Bank clamor in anger following the massive debit alert from their Access bank’s account.
However, many customers from Access Bank have reported, with empirical variable demonstrations, the debit notifications, and alert they received with the description, Stamp Duty. Many were debited just once, while others were debited more than twice in a non-specific arrays of amount. These arrays of the debited amounts range from N50, N300, N1000, N2000, N3,500, N31,00 to N100,000.
As a result, many Access Bank customers have threatened to withdraw from the Bank, while others have boiled up with anger to sue the bank for such abnormal debiting of their money without their consent.
Machinep gathers that many Nigerians have regarded this recent abnormal activity as an avenue to regain the 2billion Naira that Access Bank donated to the Federal Government for the fight of the Covid-19. The majority blamed the bank for making a very irrational decision because they could have easily credited their customers by simply sharing the 2billion Naira to their various accounts rather than offering it to the Federal Government who would probably make no rational use of the money.
Reasons for the Irregular Access Bank Debit
Of course, every action has some reasons behind it. But, the justification of the reasons is what matters a lot. Just as the description of the debit alert, the irregular charges was intentionally carried out for the purpose of “Stamp Duty”. In other words, The Nigerian government, in conjunction with the Central Bank of Nigeria, seems to have implemented some rules to have the citizens pay some stamp duties on all forms of electronic notifications in a bid to acknowledge receipts of funds.
This includes SMS and messages on any electronic platform such as emails and Whatsapp messages. Following this, there has been an ongoing random and irregular debit from some Nigerian Banks with the aim of having the citizens pay their taxes. Among the banks that have commenced the implementation of this new development are Access Bank Plc, FCMB, etc.
On a more verified observation, this abnormal activity was championed following a circular that was signed by the Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami. Part of the circular said:
“Any electronic receipt for, or electronic transfer of, money deposited with any bank or with any banker in any type of account of an amount from N10,000 upwards shall attract a singular or one-off duty of the sum of N50.”
“Stamp duty upon receipt (written, printed, or in electronic form) for transactions between corporate bodies or between a corporate body and an individual, group or body of individuals, which amounts to N10,000 and above, shall be denoted by payment of N50 per receipt to the service.”
The FIRS circular also stated that stamp duties will be paid on “POS receipts, fiscalised device receipts, Automated Teller Machine (ATM) print-outs.”
However, if you are among the people affected? Kindly share your story using the comment section.
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