CBN says N50 POS charge is illegal

Okay, it's probably happened to all of us in recent times. You flip out your credit card to pay for petrol at the gas station or to pay for groceries at the mall and you are told you'd be charged an extra N50 for your troubles.

You ask why and you are told it's a new directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to all banks.

So, you nod slowly and reluctantly comply. Sometimes, you are enraged, but mutter under your breath, pay and disappear for another time.

The CBN has now said the payments of N50 charged by merchants who use Point of Sale (POS) machines for cashless transactions is illegal.

The apex bank is advising that nobody should pay an extra dime on goods and services.

The CBN has explained that the N50 stamp duty is a fee regulated by an act that directs merchants--and not customers--to pay all necessary taxes as regulated by government agencies.

On a ChannelsTV breakfast program, CBN's Director of Payment System Management, Musa Jimoh, says the apex bank issued a circular which merchants have conveniently misinterpreted.

Merchants should be the ones paying the N50 charge and not you and I, says the CBN chief

“Stamp duty has been misinterpreted, our circular that talks about merchants paying stamp duties according to the law do not say that the stamp duty should be paid by the consumer; that is a misrepresentation of CBN directive. What our directive says is that merchants should pay all necessary tax as regulated by government agencies including stamp duty.

Nigerians made N1.4 trillion worth of transactions on the Point of Sales (PoS) terminals on an estimated 155,462 active terminals (Punch) ece-auto-gen

“What we told the merchants is that we would like the banks to ensure that the merchants comply with this directive by ensuring that every single payment that customers make to them, the merchants pay the regulated stamp duty of N50.

“What has happened is that they have actually transferred this fee blatantly and openly to the consumers; this is very wrong. No single individual should pay N50 in addition to the cost of the goods," says Jimoh.

He adds that “stamp duty is not to be paid by individuals that are consuming the goods and services of the merchants, the merchants who are receiving the money are the ones who are supposed to pay.”

But how on earth did the CBN expect merchants not to transfer the extra charges to the consumer, seeing as they are no NGOs or charities?

Jimoh explains that since the stamp duty is not regulated by the CBN, it can't be stopped at this point.

The headquarters of the Nigerian central bank in Abuja, Nigeria (Reuters) Pulse Live Kenya

“Stamp duty is not a CBN regulated fee, it is a fee regulated by an act, and so we can’t change or push anything in that direction.

"To this, the stamp duty remains and cannot be changed by the CBN. What we are doing is to ensure that the institutions we regulate (the banks) become more responsible to ensure that these fees are collected and given to the government," he says.

Ok then. So, what now? Confused much?