The House of Representatives yesterday voted for a resolution to sanction 16 deposit money banks in the country over their non-remittance of N1.586 billion accumulated from the collection of stamp duties. Also adopted was a report from the ad-hoc committee chaired by Abubakar Yunusa Ahmad which scrutinized the non-remittance of the stamp duties collected by banks into the federation account.
Which Are The Deposit Money Banks (DMB’s) Involved?
From the adopted report at the Committee of the Whole, the House came to a decision that mechanisms be put in place for the recovery of under remittances after further settlement is carried out with the banks concerned.
Sanctions on the defaulting financial services institutions were recommended by the house. Some of these banks and their respectively withheld amounts are:
| S/NO | BANK | UNDER REMITTANCE (in Naira) |
| 1 | Guaranty Trust Bank | 198,326,300 |
| 2 | Standard Chartered Bank | 3,658,193 |
| 3 | Citi Bank | 1,860,850 |
| 4 | Stanbic IBTC | 231,094,565 |
| 5 | Zenith Bank | 265,635,650 |
| 6 | Providus Bank | 646,650 |
| 7 | Fidelity Bank | 32,888,400 |
| 8 | Keystone Bank | 24,471,050 |
| 9 | UBA | 81,087,149 |
| 10 | ECO Bank | 78,527,004 |
| 11 | Diamond Bank | 545,873,950 |
| 12 | Unity Bank | 40,099,100 |
| 13 | Jaiz Bank | 2,436,150 |
| 14 | Access Bank | 66,092,350 |
| 15 | Skye Bank | 11,057,700 |
| 16 | Polaris Bank | 2,907,550 |
| TOTAL | 1,586,662,611 | |
| Source: House of Reps. Order paper. |
In its sitting, the House decided to start investigations on four (4) banks – First Bank of Nigeria, First City Monument Bank, Wema Bank, and Sun Trust Bank – for failing to appear before the ad-hoc committee or sending in submissions, despite repeated summons.
The Resolutions From The House To Defaulting DMB’s.
The House in stating that all the banks involved in late remittances should be punished, called for further investigations into the scandal. They also called on the Central Bank to strengthen the supervision of financial institutions in order to guarantee accuracy, transparency and prompt remittance of all government revenues.
Also, the House admonished relevant agencies to give maximum support to the School of Banking Honours (SBH) to realise the goal of the task given to them, this being in the overall interest of the country. It added that SBH should make stronger efforts to give accurate and timely information to the Federal Government in line with the provisions of its appointment.
Recommendations That Focus On Increasing Government’s Revenue Base.
The House further suggested that financial institutions, especially the Debt Management Office (DMO), should remit all collections with respect to government revenue on time and correctly and, where remittances are not prompt, the DMO should be sanctioned.
Although, the emphasis had been on stamp duties, the lawmakers recommended that other forms of duties should be looked into, to increase the revenue base of various levels of government in accordance with the provisions of the Stamp Duty Act 2004, and in pursuant of the CBN circular of January, 2016.
