The Central Bank of Nigeria issued a circular to all Deposit banks and financial institutions stating that all deposits into accounts, excluding savings accounts, must be charged N50 as Stamp Duty. However, these deposits must be higher than N1000.
This means that every deposit into a Current/Fixed account will be charged N50. It should be noted that the receiver of funds, and not depositor, will bear the N50 Stamp duty charge.
This is in compliance with the Stamp Duties act established in 2004 and is a proposed method of generating revenue in the non-oil sectors, especially taxes and rates.
Given the low oil prices, the Government is now exploring other methods of funding the budget , and it seems like imposing this Stamp duty is a viable one.
Each bank is expected to open a NIPOST Stamp Duties Account into which all charges collected shall be paid. The balances in such accounts shall then be transferred monthly by the banks into the CBN NIPOST Stamp Duty Collection Account. Other financial institutions shall remit their Stamp Duty collections into any bank of their choice.
This duty covers all deposits, including electronic transfers. However, payment deposits or transfer by self to self, whether inter-bank or intra-bank are unaffected by the duty. For further information, read here.