Following complaints by customers over Access Bank's stamp duty charges for three months in arrears, the management of the bank has decided to refund the customers and pay the federal government at its own cost.

The bank had in a mail to its customers stated that it discovered a mistake in its operations records, whereby stamp duty charges on applicable transactions were not passed on to customers during the 90-day period.

It stated: 'Stamp duty charge collection is in compliance with the finance Act 2019, (stamp duty Act, cap S8) we are required by law to apply the act as applicable and remit all funds to the federal government.

'However, we have had our customer's feedback that this charge is unwelcome especially at this time against a challenging economic backdrop. We have considered your feedback and have decided to pay the stamp duty for our customers for the affected period.

'This means that all the customers and SMEs who were debited for February to April will be refunded', it added.

Recall that the N50 stamp duty charge was reviewed in the Finance Act 2020. The latest Act provides, among others, that customers would be required to pay the N50 stamp duty only if their deposits or transfers exceed N10, 000.

© Pakistan Press International, source Asianet-Pakistan