The House of Representatives has asked the Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority, NEPZA to refund the sum of N13.3 billion unremitted revenue funds.
At the resumption of the House’ ad Hoc committee on unclaimed government funds in Abuja, the committee asked NEPZA to provide copies of validated receipts of financial transactions including it’s remittances to government.
The NEPZA Director of finance and administration, Oyesola Oyekunle who appeared for his organisation insisted that the agency was not in any way indebted to the Nigerian government as all revenues generated over time have been paid.
Oyekunle however told the lawmakers that since NEPZA is not fully funded, it remits only 25 percent generated revenue to government and that it last paid N3.93 billion naira to the government, making it to be up to date in payment between the period under review which is the year 2000 to date.
According to the director, the agency operates under a circular issued by the ministry of finance and not stipulated extant financial laws as expected by the committee hence the remittance percentage to government
The lawmakers insisted that the N13.3 billion arrived at was calculated based on the 80 percent revenue remittance provisions to government as contained in the financial act and not based on the circular.
Consequently, the committee adjourned for a later date to enable NEPZA reconcile their audited documents with that of the committee’s consultants to come up with a common position in order to enable the agency clear off its outstanding debt.
Hauwa Abu
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