The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee has instructed Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) to calculate and pay the Value Added Tax (VAT) on commission fees from Remita transactions between 2015 and 2022 to the federal government’s recovery account.
Remita is a payment platform used by the government to collect revenue from various agencies into the Treasury Single Account (TSA). During an investigation into potential revenue losses and non-compliance with regulations, the committee found issues with VAT payments and fees charged by the platform.
GTB’s executive director, Ahmed Liman, admitted that the bank did not pay VAT during that period. He argued that Remita, not the bank, was responsible for distributing commission fees. Despite this, the committee decided that GTB must now calculate and remit the VAT on those fees to the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Other banks, including Keystone, Sterling, Polaris, FCMB, Ecobank, and Wema, were also questioned and referred to a sub-committee for further investigation. They will need to clarify discrepancies and appear again before the panel.
