State Governors, under the auspices of the Nigerian Governors Forum, are meeting in Abuja Wednesday night to deliberate over sundry fiscal matters, particularly the circumstances that culminated to the deadlock of the Federation Accounts and Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings in Abuja.
A source confirmed that the governors would take their resolutions on the sundry matters at tonight’s meeting to tomorrow’s National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, to be presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
This is even as the source hinted that the Forum members, under the chairmanship of Zamfara State governor, Abdulaziz Yari, were also meeting with the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, to discuss the minimum wage implementation and stamp duties issue, which is currently in court.
It would be recalled that the Governors had in April set up a three-man committee to investigate the alleged N20 trillion unremitted stamp duty funds to the Federation Account.
The committee, which is chaired by Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, has Akwa Ibom State Governor Emmanuel Udom and his Niger State counterpart, Abubakar Bello, as members.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had, on January 15, 2016, issued a circular directing banks to deduct N50 stamp duty on every N1,000 deposit made into current accounts.
Similarly, the Senate had also last year alleged that N20 trillion due to be paid into the Federation Account from stamp duty charges on bank transactions was withheld between 2015 and 2017.
The upper legislative chamber then puts the projections for stamp duty in 2015, 2016 and 2017 revenue frameworks of the nation’s annual budget at N8.713 billion, N66.138 billion and N16.96 billion.
It was reliably gathered that the governors were more kindly disposed to the staggering of the implementation of the new N65,000 monthly minimum wage being proposed by the Federal Government and the organized labour if approved.
In addition, the state governors are also reported to be discussing the last tranche of the Paris Club refund and the states yet to get payment, amongst other pending fiscal matters at the ongoing meeting in Abuja.
