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Minister, NIPOST on collision course over Stamp duty agents

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Minister, NIPOST on collision course over Stamp duty agents

The introduction of stamp duty collection by the Federal Government may bring a clash between the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu and the Nigerian Postal Services, as the minister has ordered NIPOST to suspend forthwith the appointment of collection agents.

According to the minister, NIPOST had not been authorised to appoint such agents, contrary to claims by the postal agency that it had appointed agents long before now and they have been doing well. The agency was said to have interviewed about 30 agents last week.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by a consultant to the ministry, Tajudeen Kareem, the minister ordered that the process should be suspended until grey areas surrounding the agency claims had been sorted out and until a substantive Post-Master General had been appointed.

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Kareem said: “The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, has received information that a committee purportedly raised by the acting Post-Master General has commenced the process of appointing agents to collect stamp duty on behalf of the Nigerian Postal Service and, by implication, on behalf of the Federal Government.

“The minister hereby serves this warning that NIPOST has not been authorised to appoint new agents in respect of collection of stamp duty. The minister recalls that before this dispensation, a few corporate bodies and organisations were claiming to have an agreement with NIPOST in respect of this matter. There are presently, in the public domain, many claims and counter-claims.

The minister said it was expedient to thread with caution and ensure that all issues bordering on the administration of the stamp duty by NIPOST are done in line with the Federal Government’s commitment to due process, transparency and accountability.”

 

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