Nigeria to enforce stamp duties law on financial transactions - cenbank

Nigeria will start enforcing its stamp duties law on financial transactions across commercial banks, the central bank said on Tuesday - a bid to shore up non-oil revenue and plug shortfalls caused by the precipitous drop in global crude prices.
The central bank sent a circular to commercial lenders in which it told them to immediately start charging 50 naira ($0.2513) on deposits of 1,000 naira and above, or for electronic transfers conducted by customers.
It said that payments or transfers in the same name, in the same bank or to an associated bank, would not be liable to stamp duties payment, while "any form of withdrawals/transfers from savings accounts" were also exempted.
The stamp duties law was enacted in 2009 but not previously enforced because of complaints of excessive charges by commercial lenders on customers' accounts.
Africa's top oil producer, which also boasts the biggest economy on the continent, relies heavily on revenue from crude sales but the recent plunge in oil prices means it will have to look elsewhere to fund its budget.
Nigeria plans to spend about 6 trillion naira in 2016 with expected revenue of around 3.9 trillion naira, of which only 820 billion would come from oil.
Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, traded up $1.09, or 3.8 percent, at $29.64 a barrel at 1028 GMT, but Nigeria based its expected revenue on oil at $38 per barrel, meaning it will have to either raise borrowing or increase non-oil revenue to meet its target.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde said during a visit to Nigeria earlier this month that it needed to reduce its reliance on oil.
Analysts at NKC African Economics said the introduction of the stamp duties on financial transactions is bound to raise the cost of doing business in Nigeria and a significant part of it is likely be passed on to the consumer.
"(It) only represents one of the measures to be used by the government to increase revenues, and stamp duties still represent a relatively small proportion of total fiscal revenue," Cobus de Hart, NKC's economist on Nigeria, said.