House Queries Banks Over Unremitted VAT on REMITA Transactions
On Thursday, the House of Representatives questioned the management of several deposit banks over the non-remittance of millions of naira in Value Added Tax (VAT) commissions, accrued through the REMITA platform between 2015 and 2022.
Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Hon. Bamidele Salam, presided over the ongoing investigation into alleged revenue leakages via the REMITA platform and non-compliance with standard operating procedures and service agreements. The session, held in Abuja, specifically directed Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) to calculate and remit the VAT into government recovery accounts.
REMITA is a financial technology platform used by the federal government for the collection of revenues for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies into the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
During the session, lawmakers voiced concerns regarding the evidence of VAT remittance through REMITA, as well as the collection of fees during the initial phase of REMITA transactions.
In his statement, GTB’s Executive Director, Mr Ahmed Liman, acknowledged that the bank had not remitted VAT for an eight-year period.
“We believe REMITA is responsible for sharing the commission fees between the payment-receiving parties,” Liman said. “In our understanding, we assumed REMITA had already executed the necessary remittance before distributing the fees between the parties.”
Responding to queries about the collection of fees during the initial REMITA transaction phase, Liman explained that the bank charges a 0.75% fee on all transactions made via the REMITA platform. He further disclosed that GTB had received ₦254,489,013 from the Accountant General via REMITA in 2018.
Consequently, lawmakers unanimously directed GTB to calculate and remit the VAT on the commission fees received from REMITA between 2015 and 2022 into the Federal Government recovery accounts held by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Other banks that appeared before the committee over similar issues included Keystone Bank, Zenith Bank, Sterling Bank, Polaris Bank, FCMB, Ecobank, and Wema Bank.
The committee referred these banks to a reconciliation sub-committee to address discrepancies in their accounts. The affected banks are expected to reconcile the figures and schedule a new appearance before the committee.
