Reps committee asks NEPZA to refund N13.3 billion to government

The House of Representatives has asked the Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) to refund to the federal government coffers, the sum of N13.3 billion in unremitted revenue funds

At the resumption of the House’ as Hoc committee on unclaimed government funds in Abuja, the committee asked NEPZA to provide copies of validated receipts of financial transactions including its remittances to the government

The director, finance and administration, NEPZA, Oyesola Oyekunle, who appeared for his organisation insisted that the agency was not in any way indebted to the federal government as all revenues generated over time have been paid to the 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 of generated revenue to the government and has paid N3.93 billion naira last 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 the government

The lawmakers 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 activities and not based on the circular.

Consequently, the committee adjourned for a later date to enable NEPZA to reconcile their audited documents with that of the committee’s consultants to come up with a common position so as to enable the agency clear off its outstanding debt.