By Kolawole Ojebisi
Access Bank has offered to pay stamp duty charges for February to April on behalf of its customers. It also said deductions made between Saturday and Sunday would be reversed to customers.
In a statement on Sunday, the bank said it recognised that it is a tough period for customers. This development is coming against the background of angry backlash from their teeming customers on social media. The bank’s customers had complained using various social media platforms on Saturday and Sunday over stamp duty deductions.
“We have considered your feedback and have decided to pay the stamp duty on our customers’ behalf for the affected period only,” the bank said in a statement.
The bank added: “This means that individuals and SMEs who were debited for the accumulated stamp duty charge for February to April 2020 will be refunded.
“While we still have to remit these funds via the CBN to the federal government, we realise that we got it wrong by debiting our customers late, and we are refunding the affected stamp duty charge today to all affected customers. We hope this gesture goes some way to make this better.”
In an earlier statement, the bank had notified customers that it did not deduct stamp duty charges on transactions that occurred between February 1, 2020, and April 30, 2020.
Recall that 2019 finance act provides that bank customers pay a N50 stamp duty charge on every N10,000 deposit.
