By Gloria Ikibah
The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has directed Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) to calculate and remit the Value Added Tax (VAT) on the commissions earned from Remita transactions between 2015 and 2022.
This is part of an investigation into alleged revenue leakages and non-compliance with standard procedures involving the Remita platform, which the federal government uses to collect revenue through the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
GTBank’s Executive Director, Ahmed Liman, revealed that the bank had not remitted VAT for the period in question, as he believed that Remita, responsible for distributing commission fees among parties, had already handled it.
GTBank charges 0.75 per cent on payments through Remita and received over ₦254 million from the Accountant General via the platform in 2018.
Other banks, including Keystone, Zenith, Sterling, Polaris, FCMB, Ecobank, and Wema, were also invited by the committee for similar issues and were referred to a sub-committee for reconciliation of discrepancies.
They are expected to report back to the committee at a later date.