Access Bank Plc said it recently discovered a mistake in its operations records, whereby stamp duty charges on applicable transactions were not passed on to customers. The omissions occurred between February 1st, 2020, and April 30th, 2020.
The tier-1 bank said it is deeply apologetic for this error. However, all concerned customers are to prepare to pay off the accrued charges.
Nairametrics reports that an email that was sent by Access Bank to its customers recently the accrued N50 stamp duty charge will be debited from applicable customers’ accounts for remittance to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. Concerned customers were, therefore, advised to keep enough money in their bank accounts in order to accommodate the charge.
“We recently discovered that the charges on applicable transactions carried out between February 1, 2020, and April 30, 2020, were inadvertently not passed on your account. We sincerely apologise for this.
“However, in compliance with the CBN mandate, we will be required to process the accumulated charges for the said period on your account for remittance to the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“We request that you fund your account to accommodate this charge,” part of the email from the bank said.
As the email by Access Bank further explained, the Central Bank of Nigeria requires that a stamp duty charge of N50 be imposed on savings and current account holders for transactions (both deposits and electronic transfers) exceeding N10, 000.
The N50 stamp duty charge was reviewed in the Federal Government’s latest finance bill which took effect earlier this year.
The revision is such that instead of customers would be required to pay the N50 stamp duty only if their deposits or transfers exceed N10,000.
Nairametrics observed that this is against an earlier (controversial) practice of imposing a stamp duty of N50 for every deposit/transfer exceeding only N1,000.