The Public Accounts Committee of
the House of Representatives yesterday accused the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) and commercials banks collecting revenue for the government of colluding
to share money made from Value Added Tax (VAT) paid on Remita by customers.
Chairman of the Committee,
Bamidele Salam who made the allegation at the resumed investigative hearing on
revenue leakages in Abuja also accused the apex bank and the Office of the
Accountant General of the Federation of illegally paying about N15 billion to
Remita without any formal contract.
The Committee however warned the
Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS), Zacch Adedeji against his continuous
disregard to invitation of the committee, saying his actions amounted to
contempt of parliament.
He also queried the payment of
N15 billion to Remita, a payment platform from the Office of the Accountant
General for the Federation (OAGF), saying the payment by the OAGF from 2016 to
2018 was questionable because the OAGF paid the money without agreement or
contract.
Salam described the payment as
illegal, saying: "The money is an illegal payment. There was no budget
provision, so where did they source the money from? The CBN also shared in the
money. The money is an illegal payment; there was no budget provision, so where
did they source the money from?"
He said, for instance, if someone
pays N150 as a remitter, you will now pay 7.5 per cent VAT in addition to it.
Ordinarily, that whole sum of VAT ought to go to the FIRS, but what they are
doing in this transaction is that they will now add that VAT to the N150.
"They will add it up, gather
the money together, and take it to the CBN, SystemSpec and Remitta, both
collecting revenue for the Federal Government, will share 50 per cent, while
the banks and the CBN will also have their share."
He added that by the time the
Committee finished its reconciliation, "I am very sure that hundreds of
billions of naira will be the VAT component that was not remitted to
FIRS."
He said each bank ought to take
the money and directly remit to FIRS, saying: "Now Remita is saying that
each of those collecting the money will come and calculate the money that has
been shared into shreds. How do we track this kind of money?
The Director in charge of Banking
Services at the CBN, Ahmed Abdullahi, said Remita and SystemSpec were selected
as alternative way of remitting revenue because they had been rendering similar
services to banks.
He explained that Remita was engaged in 2011 and operations commenced in 2012 with system module names, adding that the CBN only finalized the transaction
He said the fees charged under
the TSA were in line with the structure of banking.
Also speaking at the hearing, the
Chief Accountant, TSA Department who represented the Accountant General for the
Federation, Oyewole Adewale, accused the CBN of not honoring its letters to
reconcile the revenue accrued to the country through TSA.
He said the OAGF had developed a
system where all revenue generated by the Ministries of Departments and
Agencies (MDAs) of government could now be monitored without any
interference.
Director, Remita Payment Services
Ltd., Mr. Aderemi Atanda who gave the summary of the TSA collection said that
10, 20, and 50 per cent were shared among CBN, commercial banks, and Remitta.
While saying the collections are
usually not static, but vary said, he said: "In 2015–2016, it was N4.2
million, and the fee paid was N8.5 billion; in 2016, N1.3 billion was
paid."
Meanwhile, while warning the FIRS
against failure to appear before the committee, the Committee Chairman said:
"This is the fourth time the committee would be inviting the FIRS chairman
but failed to show up.
"In addition to writing him
officially, we have also made sure that such letters were delivered personally
to his mail box and his WhatsApp number.
"We condemn and describe it
as irresponsible and arrogant, and we tell him that there will be consequences
if he continues this contempt of his parliament."
Salam alleged that the
value-added tax that should accrue to the Federal Government has not been
collected by FIRS.
He said some VAT from the revenue
collected by Remitta ought to have gone to the FIRS, but added that they would
rather add the VST together and share it with the CBN, Bank, and Remita.
He said: "By the time we
finished our reconciliation, the money would be in hundreds of billions,"
adding that this was what they were asking the FIRS to come and collect, but the
service had refused to show up.
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