Business
NIESV Flays Move To Impose Stamp Duty On Tenancy

The Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, has said that the move by the Federal Government to impose six per cent stamp duty on tenancy would further impoverish Nigerians.
The President of the NIESV Emma Okahs Wike, said this in a media chat with The Tide in Port Harcourt.
Wike reiterated the need for the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency and in the interest of Nigerians, suspend the proposed move to impose the six per cent tenancy tax.
According to him, “coming this time to bring in stamp duty tax, raising it from whatever position it was before is being insensitive to the people and I think that the time is very wrong in as much as we support the government in diversifying the economy, we will not allow a situation where the burden would be much on the citizens of the country.
“As Nigerian Institution for Estate Surveyors and Valuers, our stand is that they should suspend this particular taxation for now, because the Federal Government has said that about 33.6 per cent of our people would be unemployed and this same 33.6per cent are tenants”.
The NIESVs national president, also commended the organised labour for rejecting the six per cent Stamp Duty on tenancy.
He explained that if allowned to stand, many Nigerians would experience more hardship already amplified by Covid-19 Pandemic.
He said: “I think that the union has done well by rejecting it and we as Estate Surveyors and Valuers, we also think that it is not the right time for them to increase Stamp Duty Payment. There are a lot of leakages in the tax system, what they need to do is to block some of those leakages and government can get money without increasing the burden of the people.
“This Stamp Duty had been there before, so why increase it now that people are just recovering from the effect of Covid-19″.
Tonye Nria-Dappa