…Apex Bank Confirms Remittance Of VAT Deductions
The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee confirmed on Sunday that it had recovered N521.77 million unremitted Value Added Tax (VAT) from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) being deductions on fees earned from Remita transactions that were not remitted to the Federal Government over a period spanning November 2018 to April 2024.
The recovery was made by the committee during its ongoing investigation into revenue leakages linked to government collections processed through the Remita platform, following concerns over alleged revenue leakages, non-compliance with approved financial procedures, and breaches of service-level agreements governing government revenue collections.
The investigation was initiated pursuant to a House resolution on a motion titled “Investigation of Revenue Leakages Through Remita Platform and Non-Compliance Substantively with Standard Operating Procedure and Other Allied Service Level Agreement” that mandated the Public Accounts Committee to scrutinise transactions conducted through the payment platform.
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The committee, chaired by Hon. Bamidele Salam, had been examining records of remittances, deductions and collections by key MDAs and service providers to determine whether all revenues due to the Federation Account were properly accounted for.
According to findings by the committee, “the apex bank failed to remit VAT accruing from fees generated through Remita transactions, prompting lawmakers to direct the CBN to pay the outstanding amount into the Federal Government Treasury.”
However, in a statement issued by the committee’s chairman through its media unit on Sunday indicated that the committee had received confirmation of compliance from the apex bank that it had remitted the amount to the federation account.
Salam clarified: “In a letter dated May 7, 2026, the Central Bank informed the committee that it had remitted the outstanding VAT liability and provided documentary evidence showing that the sum of N521,765,134.17 had been paid into government coffers.
“The recovery demonstrates the effectiveness of legislative oversight in safeguarding public resources and ensuring accountability in the management of government revenue.
“We remain committed to recovering all funds due to the Federal Government and plugging avenues of revenue leakage across public institutions”, the lawmaker added.
Beyond the VAT recovery, the committee disclosed that several other outstanding financial obligations involving the CBN were being reviewed.
It listed one of the categories as involving unrefunded charges valued at N954.3m and accrued interest of N2.33bn, bringing the total amount being investigated under that account head to N3.28bn for transactions conducted between March and October 2015.
Also, the Public Accounts Committee is seeking the recovery of Treasury Single Account collections totalling to N8.99bn, with accumulated interest estimated at N20.73bn.
Collectively, the liabilities currently being investigated and reconciled by the committee are over N33bn.
