Some Nigerians on Sunday, January 8, 2023, raised alarm via social media as the government began the implementation of the Electronic Transfer Levy.
The levy was recently signed by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.
Ahmed signed the regulation under Section 89A(3) of the Stamp Duties Act Cap. S8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 as amended by the Finance Act of 2021.
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The regulation guided the imposition, administration, collection, and remittance of the Electronic Money Transfer Levy contained in the 2020 Finance Act.
It was gathered that the regulations provided for a single and one-off levy of fifty naira (N50) on the recipient of any electronic transaction of N10,000 or above.
Also, for any equivalent of receipts carried out in other currencies, the levy will be charged at the exchange rates determined by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The regulation appointed the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as the administrator of the Levy with the responsibility to check, collect and give an account of the levy.
It also mandated receiving banks to collect and remit to the FIRS within 24 hours or the next working day.
The receiving bank would deduct the levy across the account if the customer does have a bank account with the bank.
Nigerians recently saw that their accounts were debited with various sums– a debit which took them unaware.
