Reps Panel Slams GTB Over Non-Remittance Of 7 Years VAT On Remita Transactions

 

The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee, has asked Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) to calculate and remit the seven years Value Added Tax (VAT) on the commission from Remita between (2015 and 2022) to the federal government recovery accounts

Remita is a financial solution gateway technology used by the federal government for collection of revenue for Ministries, Departments and Agencies to the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

The committee chaired by Hon. Bamidele Salam gave the directive on Thursday at the ongoing investigation into alleged revenue leakages through REMITA platform and non-compliance substantively with standard operating procedure and other allied service agreements.

The panel raised two issues on evidence of remittance of VAT components of Remita collections and collection of fees in the first regime of the Remita transaction.

Responding, the executive director of GTBank, Ahmed Liman said the bank did not remit the VAT for the period of eight years.

He said: “We believe that Remita is saddled with the responsibility of sharing the commission fees between the payment receiving parties.

“In our mind, we think Remita has done the needful before sharing the fees between the parties.”

Liman also said the collection of fees in the first regime of the Remita transaction, the bank charged 0.75 per cent on all the payers who used the platform.

The executive director added that the bank received N254.4 million from the Accountant General through Remita in 2018.

The committee resolved that the bank should calculate and remit the VAT on the commission fees received from the platform from 2015 to 2022 to the federal government recovery accounts domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Other Banks that appeared before the committee on the same issues were Keystone, Sterling Bank, Polaris Bank, FCMB, Ecobank, Wema among others.

The committee referred the aforementioned banks to the reconciliation sub-committee in order to address the discrepancies that were noted and get a new date to re-appear before the panel.