Standard Chartered responds on the matter of the 2% Tax collections

Earlier on we reported on Standard Chartered Bank’s notice concerning the collection of two years worth of the Intermediary Money Transfer Tax or more commonly known as the 2% Tax. Standard Chartered was going to collect the money from its customers’ accounts over a period of three months or more depending on the amount.

This proposal was going to put an immeasurable strain on its individual and business clients because we have all felt the pinch of the COVID-19 pandemic financially. Adding an untold sum to the amounts that their customers were able to make this year was going to cap off 2020 in the worst way and usher in 2021 with a lot more uncertainty.

To get their side of the story we reached out to Standard Chartered and this is the response we received:

“We are aware of the issue which has been rectified going forward and have engaged our clients directly to express our sincere apologies for this inconvenience.  We will ensure that the tax is recovered over a period that will cause minimal inconvenience to our customers.  Standard Chartered takes the law and regulations very seriously in all the markets we operate in.”

Standard Chartered

The hope here is that Standard Chartered can work out individual timelines for the 2% tax payments. Financial positions differ vastly and taking a one size fits all approach might not work here. A bespoke payment plan could also be a sign of good faith from the bank after the unilateral and honestly unfair proposal it issued earlier.

Standard Chartered will have to give a reason as to why the collection of the 2% Tax wasn’t when it should have and why it’s customers have to be inconvenienced now.