Senate bars NIPOST from tax collection, withdraws agency’s regulatory powers
The Senate, on Tuesday finally laid to rest the lingering controversy between the Nigerian Postal Service and the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
The two agencies had been on each other’s throat over who was statutorily empowered to collect stamp duty on behalf of the Federal Government.
The red chamber passed the Nigerian Postal Service (Repeal and Reenactment) Bill, 2021, which did not make provision in the Bill for tax collection.
The proposed law effectively restricted the agency on only postal operations in the country.
The Bill unbundled the agency by creating a commission to regulate its affairs.
Section 2, sub-section 1-3 of the Bill, specifically, barred NIPOST from engaging in tax collection.
The section read, “There is hereby established, a body, to be known as the Nigerian Postal Service (hereby designated as the Public Postal Operator) which (a) shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal.
“The postal operator shall be charged with the responsibility of providing Universal Postal service in Nigeria.
“In carrying out its Universal Postal service obligations, the provisions of any enactment, law or regulation, relating to taxation of companies, agencies and trust funds shall not apply to the Public Postal Operator save for its obligation as collecting agent if Government”.
The Chairman of Senate Committee on Communication, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, said the sub-clause (1) (a) under clause 3, deals with the Establishment of Membership of the Governing Board of the Public Postal Operator.
