The House of Representatives has ordered Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) to calculate and remit Value Added Tax (VAT) on the commission it received from Remita between 2015 and 2022 to the Federal Government recovery account.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), of the lower chamber, Rep. Bamidele Salam (PDP- Osun), gave the directive on Thursday during the ongoing investigation into alleged revenue leakages through REMITA platform.
The directive to GTB followed a unanimous resolution of the committee after scrutinizing the records and listening to the management of the bank.
The committee raised concerns about the non-remittance of VAT during the initial phase of the Remita transactions. Aside from that, the committee is also investigating non-compliance with the standard operating procedure and other related matters.
In its defence the Executive Director of GTB, Mr Ahmed Liman, said the bank did not remit the VAT for a period of eight years because it believed that Remita had deducted the VAT before sharing commissions with the bank.
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,” he said.
The executive director said that the bank charged 0.75% on all the payers who used the Remita platform. He added that the bank received N254.4 million (N254, 489, 013) from the Accountant General through Remita in 2018.
Meanwhile, representatives from other banks, including Keystone, Zenith Bank, Sterling Bank, Polaris Bank, FCMB, Ecobank, and Wema, also appeared before the committee on the same matter.
The committee referred these banks to its reconciliation sub-committee to resolve discrepancies in their submissions.
They are expected to reconcile the issues and will be given a new date to reappear before the committee.
Remita, developed by SystemSpecs, is a financial solution gateway technology used by the Federal Government for the collection of revenue for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) into the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
Remita enables remittance of all taxes including the Pay as You Earn (PAYE), VAT, and Withholding tax to the relevant Tax authorities. It also enables remittance of pension contributions and delivery of accompanying schedules to Pension Fund Administrators and Pension Fund Custodians.
Aside from government payments, individuals and businesses also use the platform for different kinds of payments.
