Reps Demand Commercial Banks to Remit VAT on Remita Transactions to FG
The House of Representatives’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has instructed Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) to calculate and pay the Value Added Tax (VAT) on the commission they earned through Remita from 2015 to 2022 into the federal government’s recovery accounts.
Remita is a payment platform the government uses to collect revenue for its Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, which is deposited into the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
On Thursday, during an investigation into possible revenue losses through Remita and failure to follow the proper procedures, the committee, led by Rep. Bamidele Salam, gave this directive.
The committee raised two main concerns: proof of VAT payments on Remita’s transactions and how fees were handled in the early days of using Remita.
GTB’s Executive Director, Mr. Ahmed Liman, admitted the bank hadn’t paid VAT for eight years. He explained that they believed Remita was responsible for distributing the commission fees properly among the parties involved.
Mr. Liman also addressed the fee structure, stating that the bank charges 0.75% on all payments made through Remita and that GTB received N254,489,013 from the Accountant General via Remita in 2018.
The committee ordered GTB to calculate and pay the VAT on commissions earned from 2015 to 2022 to the federal government’s recovery accounts, held at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Other banks like Keystone, Zenith, Sterling, Polaris, FCMB, Ecobank, and Wema also appeared before the committee for similar issues. They were referred to a reconciliation sub-committee to resolve any discrepancies and are expected to return for further discussions.
