The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has again called on the Federal Government to compel commercial banks to discontinue the deduction of N50 as stamp duties from the accounts of customers.
The Director-General of NECA, Mr Olusegun Oshinowo, made the appeal Ikeja. He said it was wrong for banks to continue to make the deductions after a court ruling that such deductions should be stopped forthwith.
According to him, duplication of taxes in the country is largely responsible for the persistent dwindling of business activities nationwide.
“The biggest challenge businesses have in Nigeria is not multiple taxation but duplication of taxes. It is true that there are about 55 taxes paid by business operators in the country.
“For instance, after you pay VAT as a consumer, the Lagos State Government will ask you to pay hotel consumption tax because you want to use hotel facility. They are both consumption tax.
“Whether the FIRS calls it corporate tax, withholding tax, levies or sub-charges, the money is coming from the same purse.
“It is not until you give a name to whatever a business operator is paying for that it is tax. Evidence has shown that OPS members pay 55 different monies to the government at different levels.’’
The NECA chief cautioned that the government could be stifling the economy from attaining its potential with the legion of taxes imposed on people.
He warned that government should show caution on the number of taxes imposed on businesses so as not to discourage business ventures, especially foreign direct investments.
Oshinowo, who is retiring from service in December, said that his passion was to support young entrepreneurs with business ideas to boost job creation.
He said that he had no plans whatsoever, to go into politics, noting: “politics is not for me”.
Meanwhile, the United Bank for Africa (UBA), Pan-African Financial Institution and developers of Leo- the UBA’s chat banker, has launched in pilot mode on WhatsApp and will be fully available to customers by September 1.
UBA is once again asserting itself as a pace setter, moving in leaps and bounds in unchartered territory, just after clinching the Euromoney awards as the Best Digital Bank in Africa,
With Leo now on WhatsApp, customers who are lovers of the app will be able to open new accounts, check their balances on the go and carry out basic banking services
Speaking about the launch of Leo on WhatsApp, Kennedy Uzoka, Group Managing Director, said: “Our customers are at the heart of our business and we as a bank, are never relenting in matching our words with equal action.
In today’s fast paced world with demands for quick responses, our aim is to make banking seamless and effortless for our millions of existing and potential customers.”
Also speaking on the launch of Leo on WhatsApp, Mr Austine Abolusoro, group head of UBA’s Online Banking, stated ‘United Bank for Africa is a technology-driven institution with vast knowledge in the business that we do and Leo, being a tested dependable and intelligent personality, will replicate on WhatsApp, the success it has experienced on the Facebook Messenger platform.
It is a solution that is from the customer’s standpoint, easy to use by anyone regardless of your demography.’