The House of Representatives yesterday asked the Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority, NEPZA to refund to the Federal Government coffers the sum of N13.3 billion being its unremitted revenue funds.
At the resumption of the House Ad-hoc Committee on Unclaimed Federal Government Funds hearing in Abuja, the probe panel asked NEPZA to provide copies of validated receipts of financial transactions including it’s remittances to government
But the Director of Finance and Administration, NEPZA, Mr Oyesola Oyekunle who appeared for the agency insisted that it was not in any way indebted to the government as all revenues generated over time have been paid to government up to date.
Oyekunle however contradicted himself when he told the lawmakers that since NEPZA is not fully funded, it remits only 25 percent generated revenue to government and has paid N3.93 billion naira last to government, making it to be up to date in payment between the period under review which is the year 2000 to date.
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
The lawmakers despite this statement insisted that the N13.3 billion arrived at was calculated based on the 80 percent revenue remittance provisions to government as contained in the Finance Act and not based on the circular.
Consequently, the Committee adjourned to a later date to enable NEPZA reconcile their audited documents with that of the committee’s consultants to in order for them to come up with a common ground so as to enable the agency clear off its outstanding debt.