The Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) revenue component of disbursements by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) to the three tiers of government, between January and July this year, amounted to N114.38 billion, findings by New Telegraph show.
The amount is N5.32 billion or 4.88 per cent higher than the N109.06 billion EMTL generated by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in the corresponding period of 2023. An analysis of communiqués of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings and relevant National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data for the first seven months of the year, indicates that the EMTL revenue disbursed to the three tiers of government amounted to N15.92 billion in January; N15.16 billion in February; N14.75 billion in March; N18.02 billion in April; N15.15 billion in May; N15.78 billion in June and N19.60 billion in July.
This means that the FIRS generated a total of N114.38 billion as EMTL revenue between January and July. Introduced by the Federal Government in Finance Act, 2020 to tap into the growth in electronic funds transfer in Nigeria, the EMTL is a singular and one-off levy of N50 on the recipient of any electronic receipts or transfers of N10,000 or above.
For equivalent receipts or transfers carried out in other currencies, the levy is charged at the exchange rates determined by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The levy, which applies to all account types, came into effect in January 2021 and is an amendment of the Stamp Duty Act, under which, N50 used to be levied on electronic payments above N1,000.
Under the Finance Act 2020, revenue derived from the EMT levy is shared based on derivation and distributed at 15 percent to the Federal Government and Federal Capital Territory, 50 percent to the state governments and 35 percent to the 774 local governments.
Thus, the press release issued by the Director, Information and Public Relations at the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Manga, at the end of the August meeting of the FAAC, during which a total sum of N1,358.075 trillion was shared to the three tiers of government as Federation Allocation for the month of July, 2024 from a gross total of N2,613.791 trillion, stated that:
“The sum of N19.602 billion from Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) was distributed to the three (3) tiers of government as follows: the Federal Government received N2.823 billion, States got N9.409 billion, Local Government Councils received N6.586 billion, while N0.784 billion was allocated for Cost of Collection.” Analysts note that the increased adoption of e-payment in the country in recent years is leading to the FIRS generating more EMTL revenue.
Latest data released by the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), for instance, shows that transactions through electronic payment (e-payment) channels in the country rose by 8.98 per cent, or N7.86 trillion, to N95.31 trillion in July 2024 from N87.45 trillion recorded in the previous month Also, data obtained from the NBS shows that EMTL revenue generated by FIRS increased from N114 billion in 2021, to N125.67 billion and N181.17 billion in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
