The FCCPC issued the directive in a statement signed by its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Babatunde Irukera, and made available to journalists in Abuja.
In recent times, there has been significant contention with respect to merchant imposed N50 stamp duty assessments on consumers for PoS transactions.
The fee, which is said to have emanated from the Central Bank of Nigeria, was meant to be for consumers who select PoS option to conclude their purchases or transactions.
Supermarkets, eateries, filling stations, and other businesses across the country have had to charge their customers an additional N50 on every PoS transaction.
Irukera in the statement described the charge as counterproductive as it negated the effort of the apex bank to promote a cashless economy.
He said the merchants’ response of imposing this assessment on consumers was not only inconsistent with the cashless policy, but also counterproductive and burdensome on consumers.
He said before the decision was arrived at, the commission had robustly engaged the CBN on the issue, pursuant to S.17 (b), (f), (g), (i) of the FCCPA Act.
The FCCPC boss added that meetings of the highest levels of leadership of both the CBN and FCCPC were held on the issue.
Irukera said the FCCPC’s strongly held position was that an assessment imposed on merchants necessarily was a component of their costs of doing business.
This, according to him, may only be directly passed on to consumer in limited circumstances.
He said, “Businesses, by their very nature, already capture the operating cost price of their goods and services
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