By Uche Mbah
The proposal by the government that Nigerians will start paying for Bank deposits has been met with outrage and criticism from Nigerians who see that as being very unfeeling of the present government.
According to government, the charges are expected to attract fees for both deposits and withdrawals for deposits amounting to N500,000 and above. There will be three percent for withdrawals and 2% for deposits. This is apart from the Value added tax, VAT, which has recently been increased to 7.5%, which brings the total tax to over ten percent of deposits in banks.
All these are exclusive of ATM maintenance charges, transfer charges, stamp duty charges and others.
Sources, however, indicate that the presidency is worried about the fact that there is currently cash squeeze in the country, a situation that questions what has happened to the amount that accrued through the Treasury Single Account, TSA, which is said to run into trillions, and allegedly beset with shoddy accounting. It also questions the gleefully announced recovered loots that also are said to run into trillions of Naira.
Almost all the budgets under the administration is predicated on borrowing. But this magazine was informed that creditors are becoming wary of the possibility of payment, judging by the bleak outlook of the economy. This, according to sources, informed the idea of throwing caution to the wind to raise money for the Government to fund the budget. No budget has been implemented fifty percent since the inception of this government despite the huge borrowings.
But reactions to the proposal have been that of outrage, with Nigerians lamenting the return of raw cash to the polity. Many believe that armed robbery will increase since many will now start private banking “under the beds and in safes”, according to one enraged writer.
Recall that the introduction of the TSA resulted in people stashing away cash to prevent bank traces of transactions. This has resulted in the cash crunch within banks.
