Nigeria May Earn N462bn Annually From Electronic Transfer – World Bank

The World Bank has said that Nigeria is likely to make N462 billion from electronic money transfer (EMT) levy and as a source of stable revenue this year.

According to the bank’s report, entitled ‘Resilience through Reforms”,  the EMT levy was introduced in the Finance Act 2020, which amended the Stamp Duty Act and taps into the growth in electronic funds transfer in Nigeria.

EMT levy which is also referred to as Stamp Duty charge is a singular and one-off charge of N50 on electronic receipt or transfer of money deposited in any deposit money bank or financial institution on any type of account on sums of N10,000 or more.

The revenue derived from EMT levy is shared based on derivation and distributed at 15 per cent to the federal government and the Federal Capital Territory, and 85 per cent to the state governments.

Speaking on the levy, Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader at PwC, Taiwo Oyedele opined that the charge is one that is out of date and ought not to still be in use.

“To think about the stamp duty law of 1939 or thereabout long before our independence and apart from changing pounds to naira and kobo there hasn’t been any major improvement.

“We have  a law of 1939 which was  before I was born which means it is very old, that means we are trying to tax transactions now that never existed at that time.

“We didn’t even have the internet then and now we are trying to impose stamp duties on money transfers. Electronic money transfer wasn’t in existence when this law was made so we are now trying to force a square peg into a round hole. There would be a lot of scars,” Oyedele said.

SOURCE:LEADERSHIP / Mark Itsibor