JUST IN: Access Bank To Refund Stamp Duty Deductions From Feb-April

Customers of Access Bank PLC will now get a relief following the decision by the management to refund all stamp duty deductions from their customers’ accounts on Saturday.

The bank also offered to pay stamp duty charge for February to April on behalf of its customers.

Access Bank had notified its customers in an email sent to them on June 23 that it “will be required to process the accumulated charges” incurred between February 1, 2020 and April 30, 2020.

This led to customers expressing their dissatisfaction over the decision on social media as the deductions took effect, describing the deductions as outrageous and unnecessary.

The bank however reacted swiftly to the outcry of its customers.

We have heard our customers’ feedback that this charge is unwelcome, especially at this time against a challenging economic drop,” the bank said in a statement on Sunday.

“We have considered your feedback and have decided to pay the stamp duty on our customers’ behalf for the affected period only.

“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.”

The stamp duty deductions applies to all credits received into current and savings accounts in respect to electronic transfer and teller deposits of N10,000 and above.

The money is remitted to the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), according to the bank.

The collection of the fees took effect in February but the bank inadvertently delayed implementation until this week.