Access Bank to refund customers three-month stamp duty deductions

Access Bank

Access Bank says it will foot the stamp duty charge for February to April on behalf of its customers.

In a statement on Sunday, the bank also pledged to reverse deductions made between Saturday and Sunday.

“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.

“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.”

Stamp duty deductions made over the weekend had sparked outrage among customers.

The bank, in an earlier statement, had notified customers that it did not deduct stamp duty charges on transactions that occurred between February 1, 2020, and April 30, 2020.

The 2019 Finance Act provides that bank customers pay a N50 stamp duty charge on every N10,000 deposit.