Nigeria’s Federal House of Representatives. Photo: Lucie Ladidi Elukpo

The committee accused the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and commercial banks of complicity in sharing of the N15 billion remittance.

Bamidele Salam, Chairman PAC, made the allegation at the resumed investigative hearing on revenue leakages in Abuja, yesterday.

Remita is a payment solution that helps individuals and businesses make and receive payments, pay bills, and manage their finances.

Salam said the payment of N15 billion to Remita from the OAGF from 2016 to 2018 was questionable, adding that the OAGF paid the money without agreement or contract.

He said: 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.

He lamented that if someone pays N150, such will then pay 7.5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) in addition. Ordinarily, that whole sum of VAT ought to go to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

But what they are doing in this transaction is that they will now add VAT to the N150. They will add it up, gather the money together, and take it to the CBN, he alleged.

He said: SystemSpecs and Remita, both collecting revenue for the Federal Government, will share 50 per cent, while the banks and the CBN will also have their share.

He said by the time the committee is finished with its reconciliation, I am very sure that hundreds of billions of naira will be the VAT component that was not remitted to FIRS.

According to him, each bank ought to take the money and directly remit it to FIRS.

Director of Banking Services at the CBN, Ahmed Abdullahi, said the fiscal watchdog deemed it fit to source for an alternative way of remitting revenue, and Remita and System Spec were selected because they had been rendering similar services to banks.

According to him, Remita was engaged in 2011, and operations commenced in 2012 with system module names. The CBN only finalised the transaction.

He said fees charged under the TSA were in line with the structure of banking, and that the volume of revenue collection that passed through Remita was N86 million.

Oyewole Adewale, Chief Accountant, TSA Department, representing the Accountant General for the Federation, accused the CBN of not honouring 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 ministries, departments and agencies of government (MDAs) could be monitored without any interference.

Aderemi Atanda, the Director of Remita Payment Services Ltd., while reading the summary of the TSA collection record, said that 10, 20, and 50 per cent were shared among the CBN, commercial banks, and Remita.

He said collections were usually not static, adding that they vary. From 2015 to 2016, it was N4.2 million, and the fee paid was N8.5 billion; in 2016, N1.3 billion was paid.

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