Despite CBN’s Directive, Retail Outlets Still Collect ₦50 PoS Fee

Retail outlets in the e-payment value chain are still collecting N50 Point of Sale (PoS) Stamp Duty fee from customers despite Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) directive stopping it.

Investigation carried out in the country’s commercial capital Lagos, by The Nation showed that filling station operators in the downstream oil sector, the supermarkets among others, have continued to collect the illegal fee on PoS transaction by customers.

Filing stations and supermarkets now add the fee to the customer’s purchases.

To avoid dispute with its customers, some filling stations pasted the notice of payment on their pumps, while others simply add the cost to customer’s bill without informing them.

The President of the Bank Customers Association of Nigeria, Uju Ogubunka, condemned the continuous collection, in spite of the CBN’s directive that it should stop.

He urged the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to ensure compliance with the directive by marketers.

Ogubunka said the apex bank should ensure full compliance’s across retail shops.

Ogubunka said: “I expect the CBN to move beyond its directive that bank customers reject the fee and fight for customers. Another option is for the customers to carry cash and avoid the fee where the risks are minimal.”

The CBN Director, Payment System Management Department, Musa Jimoh, urged customers to reject the N50 PoS fee.

He said the stamp duty is a fee regulated by an Act adding that the stamp duty as it is today has been misinterpreted.

The CBN official said: “Our circular that talks about merchants paying stamp duty according to the law does not say that the stamp duty should be paid by the consumer. That’s actually a misrepresentation of the CBN’s directive.

“What our directive says is that merchants should pay all necessary charges as regulated by the government agency, including stamp duty. When there is an electronic transaction to an account other than savings account and the transaction amount is more than N1,000, you have to pay stamp duty.”

The CBN and the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), in a circular to banks and merchants said they were working for the application of remittance processes to ensure the seamless collection of stamp duty charges for PoS.

The Pos fee was being paid by merchants on the aggregate PoS transactions carried out on a particular period, which was never passed to customers.

The extra charge on customer’s transaction followed a CBN’s directive to banks to charge N50 Stamp Duty on individual transactions, rather than merchants’ accounts.

The directive on the Unbundling of Merchant Settlement Amounts was contained in the CBN circular to banks, processors and switches, titled: “Review of process for merchants’ collections on electronic transactions”.

The policy stipulates Stamp Duties Payment on individual transactions that occur on PoS, rather than previous plans where charges occurred on aggregate transactions.

Signed by CBN Director, Payments System Management Department, Sam Okojere, the circular authorises banks to unbundle merchant settlement amounts and charge applicable taxes and duties on individual transactions as stipulated by regulators.

Merchant Service Charge was also reviewed downward from 0.75 per cent (capped at N1, 200) to 0.50 per cent (capped at N1, 000).

In a NIBSS report titled: “Returns on Stamp Duty Collection for merchant transactions”, the payment agency said the new stamp duty payment plan is in line with the provision of the Stamp Duties Act and Federal Government Financial Regulation 2009.

The policy, it added, was aimed at ensuring strict adherence to the CBN guideline communication on the subject, collection and Remittance of Statutory Charges on receipts to Nigeria postal Service under the Stamp Duties Act dated 15th January 2016.

The procedural processing guide for stamp duty Charges for PoS, web merchant and all deposit money banks (DMBs) should download daily PoS/Web settlement report from their respective processors settlement file transfer portal.

Also, the PoS and web settlement processing officer shall ensure that stamp duties are correctly processed daily by downloading daily PoS/web transactions valued at N1, 000 and above, noting the count of these transactions; multiply the count of these transactions by N50 and pass the corresponding debit/charge to the respective merchant accounts.

The apex bank guideline said: “The debit should be passed to the merchant accounts at the point of PoS/Web merchant Credit/Settlement to mitigate against the inability of the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to successfully secure these daily stamp duties charges and remit as expected.

“These charges are expected to be deposited into the already opened stamp duty collections account at the various DMBs and should form part of the weekly Stamp Duty rendition by the DMBs to NIBSS.”

The NIBSS data showed the total volumes of PoS transactions for 2017 stood at 146.3 million, which was worth N1.4 trillion; 285.9 million transactions in 2018 worth N2.3 trillion and 187.7 million for six months- January to June 2019 worth N1.4 trillion.