The House of Representatives, on Tuesday adopted the report by the Committee on Communications on the Nigerian Postal Service Act (Amendment) Bill, which will create Nigerian Postal Commission and make the already existing Nigerian Postal Service an operator under it.
The proposed amendment will also retain NIPOST’s powers to collect stamp duty on behalf of the Federal Government.
The legislation is titled, ‘A Bill for an Act to Repeal the Nigerian Postal Service Act Cap 6127 LFN 2006 and Establish the Nigeria Postal Commission to Make Comprehensive Provisions for the Development and Regulation of Postal Service; and for Other Related Matters.’
The Federal Inland Revenue Service and NIPOST had clashed over stamp duty collection when the Finance Bill 2020 moved the responsibility from the latter to the former.
The Federal Government had later in March 2021 declared that NIPOST was authorised to produce and collect stamp duties in Nigeria.
The legislation partly read, “As from the commencement of this bill, notwithstanding anything contained in any enactment whatsoever, all receipts, documents and other instruments shall be denoted, authenticated and validated with adhesive and or electronic stamp of the Postal Service for the purpose of denoting, authenticating and validating receipts, documents and other instruments in accordance with the ‘Stamping Protocol;’
“The Public Postal Operator shall be the only competent authority to charge and collect proceeds from the sale of adhesive and or electronic stamps for the purposes of denoting, authenticating and validating receipts, documents and other instruments.”
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