The Chairman of the Nigerian Postal Service, Maimuna Abubakar took to her Twitter account on Sunday, 2nd August, 2020 to accuse the Federal Inland Revenue of stealing their mandate. According to her, she has been having sleepless nights because of NIPOST because the Federal Inland Revenue Service has been selling the stamps they ought to sell.
She called on the general public to come to their aid as the Federal Inland Revenue Service plans to “kill and bury” the postal agency. According to her, NIPOST should be in charge of printing and selling of national stamps, which the Federal Inland Revenue Service has decided to steal from them as she stated that there is no where in FIRS Act or Stamp Duty Act where it is stated that FIRS can produce or sell stamp.
See her post below:
I am worried for NIPOST, having sleepless night because of NIPOST, we need the general public to come to our aid, FIRS stole our mandate..#justicefornipost
— Maimuna Abubakar (@ref_ng) August 2, 2020
In response to her allegations, the Federal Inland Revenue Service has taken to their Twitter account to explain the difference between stamp duty and postage stamp, a difference which is strange to Mrs. Maimuna Abubakar.
According to FIRS, “NIPOST is a government parastatal established by Decree 41 of 1992 with the function to develop, promote, and provide adequate and efficiently co-ordinated postal services at reasonable rates.”
On the other hand, “this function is clearly contrary to the claim by NIPOST over the administration of stamp duties in Nigeria. The FIRS is the sole agency of got charged with the responsibility of assessing, collecting, and accounting for all tax types including Stamp Duties,” according to FIRS.
FIRS called the tweet of the Chairman of the Nigerian Postal Agency “indecorous which has cast aspersions on reputable public institutions like the National Assembly and the Federal Inland Revenue Service.”
FIRS further stated in its statement on Twitter, thus “We wish to state categorically that, as an agency which operates within the ambit of the law, the FIRS is determined to not only ensure that all monies collected by NIPOST into its illegally operated Stamp Duties Account are fully remitted into the Federation Account but also make sure that any kobo not accounted for in that account is legally recovered in line with the charge of President Muhammadu Buhari to the recently inaugurated Inter-ministerial committee on the recovery of stamp duties from 2016 till date.
“In addition, anyone found culpable of misappropriating the funds in the said illegal NIPOST Stamp Duties Account would be made to face the law as provisioned by the country’s statute books.
“The public is hereby reminded that we at the FIRS are resolute in our resolve to safeguard national interests and not any personal ego or interest as NIPOST officials appear to carry on lately. We therefore call on right-thinking Nigerians to disregard that ill-advised tweet by Mrs. Maimuna Abubakar and allied misinformation being disseminated by NIPOST in relation to Stamp Duties collection, which by law is the responsibility of the FIRS.”
See the tweet below:
THAT VEXED NIPOST TWEET BY MRS. MAIMUNA ABUBAKAR
We appreciate the general public for demonstrating deep knowledge of the difference between Stamp Duty and Postage Stamp. It is unfortunate that Mrs. Maimuna Abubakar, Chairperson of the NIPOST Board is yet to understand this.— Federal Inland Revenue Service NG (@FIRSNigeria) August 4, 2020