Stamp Duties- Where Does The Liability Lie?

Until recently, stamp duties had been one of the underutilized sources of revenue for the Nigerian Government. The Stamp Duties Act (SDA) was enacted in 1939 to provide statutory basis for the imposition of duties on executed dutiable instruments but its application to dutiable instruments in Nigeria was largely downplayed or even ignored by both the duty payers and the collection agencies. The wide spectrum of dutiable instruments outlined in the SDA including agreements, contracts, bank deposits, bills of sale, bonds, certificates, deeds, legal mortgages, etc., and the immense volume of transactions requiring the execution of such dutiable instruments, would have made stamp duties one of the main sources of revenue for the government.