CBN to investigate defaults on PoS compliance – TheNigerialawyer

The Central Bank of Nigeria is set to investigate merchants that
have refused to comply with its directives on the Point of Sale
charges.

The apex bank had directed merchants to stop the deduction of
additional N50 stamp duty on PoS transactions carried out by
customers.

Investigation revealed that some outlets have refused to comply
with the directive and continued to deduct the charges from
customers.

Some other merchants have been encouraging their customers to
pay with cash, complaining that the network was bad on the PoS.

A source in the CBN told our correspondent that the appropriate
department within the apex bank would wade into the issue.

The source said, “The implementation of the new charges only
commenced on Wednesday; I will alert the appropriate
department.”

Text messages and calls to the Director, Corporate
Communications, CBN, Mr Isaac Okorafor, were yet to be responded to
as of the time of filing this report.

Stakeholders had said that the N50 stamp duty charges on payment
above N1, 000 on the PoS terminals and web platforms were hindering
the cashless transaction initiative of the CBN.

Many customers had preferred to withdraw cash over the counter
or at the ATM to pay for transactions in order to avoid the N50 PoS
charge.

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission had
on December 24, 2019 stopped the additional N50 charge imposed on
transactions conducted through the PoS terminals.

The fee, which was said to have emanated from the CBN, was meant
to be for consumers who selected the PoS option to conclude their
purchases or transactions.

The CBN, in a circular to banks, processors and switches on
September 17, 2019, had authorised banks to unbundle merchant
settlement amounts and charge applicable taxes and duties on
individual taxes and duties on individual transactions.

The merchant service charge was reviewed downward by the apex
bank from 0.75 per cent (capped at N1,200) to 0.50 per cent (capped
at N1,000).

The CBN directed all PoS and web processing officers to ensure
that stamp duty was correctly processed daily by downloading
transactions valued at N1,000 and above, multiply the count of the
transactions by N50 and pass the corresponding debit to the
respective merchant accounts.

However, some merchants had said that there was a reduction in
their PoS transactions as customers adopted cash payments.

However, the CBN recently said its circular on merchants paying
stamp duty did not say that the stamp duty should be paid by the
consumer.