Bank customers who migrated to digital service financial institutions due to the multiple fees and levies imposed by commercial banks are now at a crossroad as the digital money banks (DMB) have started charging the Central Bank- imposed Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), among other charges. The implementation starts today, September 9.
DMBs such as Opay, Moniepoint, Kuda, PalmPay, Fairmoney, 9psb, among others, have already alerted their customers of the new development, laying the directive at the door of the Apex regulatory bank. Some of the banks further explained that the money charged for in-bound electronic transfers go to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and should not be looked at as the banks’ exploitative move, as most customers accuse them.
It will be recalled that after the controversy, and subsequent scrapping of the Stamp Duty charges by banks, the CBN issued a directive to commercial banks to start collecting a N50 Electronic Transfer Levy for in-bound transfers from N10,000 (ten thousand naira) and above.
However, the digital service banks, after licencing by the CBN, drew customers with promises of eliminating such extraneous charges, including inter-bank charges.
The EMTL was introduced in the Finance Act 2020. The revenue derived from the EMTL is shared among the three tiers of government based on derivation, with the Federal Government receiving 15%, state governments receiving 50% and local governments getting 35%.
In December 2023, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) also directed deposit banks to deduct and remit the EMTL on foreign currency (FCY) transactions going forward.
Before that time, N50 charge on transactions from above N10,000 was only applicable to local currency transactions.
The banks in January this year began the deduction of EMTL on old foreign currency transactions covering 2021 to 2023 as directed by the tax regulator.
The notification by one of the digital banks read: “Dear valued customers, please be informed that starting September 9, 2024, a one-time fee of N50 will be applied for electronic transfer of N10,000 and above paid into your personal or business account in compliance with the Federal Inland Revenue Service regulations.”
