Reps ask NEPZA to refund N13.3bn to government’s coffer

The House of Representatives has asked the Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) to refund unremitted revenue, amounting to N13.3 billion to the Federal Government treasury.

The House through its ad-hoc Committee on Unclaimed Government Fund, also demanded that NEPZA should provide copies of validated receipts of financial transactions, including its remittances to government to the panel.

But Oyesola Oyekunle, the director, finance and administration, NEPZA, who appeared at the resumed hearing of the committee in Abuja on Wednesday, said that the agency was not in any way indebted to the Federal Government as all revenues generated over time have been remitted to date.

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Oyekunle, however, told the lawmakers that since the agency is not fully funded, it remits only 25 percent generated revenue to the government. He said the last payment by the agency was N3.93 billion, making it to be up to date in remitting revenue to the government.

According to him, 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.

Responding, the committee led by Uyime Edem, insisted that the N13.3 billion arrived at was calculated based on the 80 percent revenue remittance provisions to the government as contained in the Financial Act and not based on the circular.

The lawmaker, therefore, adjourned for a later date to enable NEPZA to reconcile its audited documents with that of the committee’s consultants to come up with a common position in order to enable NEPZA clear off its outstanding debt.