TSA: Reps probe 812 MDAs secret accounts with commercial banks

The House of Representatives, on Thursday, commenced an investigation into various secret accounts of 812 ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) domiciled with deposit money banks operating in the country.

Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Hon Wole Oke who disclosed this during the investigative hearing into the N50 Stamp Duty on behalf of Nigerian Postal Commission (NIPOST) and 1% Stp Duty on contracts collected on behalf of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

Worried by the level of impunity being perpetrated by the management of all the MDAs in deviant to the Presidential directive on the implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA), Hon Oke directed all the commercial banks to provide details of all the MDAs whose revenue and expenditure accounts are still domiciled with them.

According to Hon Oke, the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) during an interactive session with the Committee disclosed that only Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) are exempted from the TSA policy.

In response to the Committee’s inquiry, representatives of some of the commercial banks confirmed that some MDAs including Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) are still domiciled with them.

On its part, Zenith Bank confirmed that the TSA accounts of Nigerian Army, Nigerian Police, NACCIMA and Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) are still being managed by the bank.

The Committee is also beaming its searchlight on other major revenue-generating agencies such as: Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System (NIRSAL), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Nigerian Collateral Register, among others.

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While responding to questions on various amounts generated by the banks, Mr. Abdulfatai Amoo, Jaiz Bank’s Executive DirectorOperations/CFO confirmed collection of N137.893 million stamp duty between January 2016 to February 2017 while the balance of N123,420 was collected under NIPPS up to November 2019, adding that the bank did not collect revenue on the 1% stamp duty on contract on behalf FIRS.

In the same vein, Zenith Bank confirmed the receipt of total sum of N7.412 billion between 2016 and 2019 on behalf of NIPOST.

On his part, Mr Taiwo who spoke on behalf of Union Bank Plc confirmed receipt of N452.529 million as stamp duty on behalf of NIPOST from January 2016 to November 15, 2019.

Also speaking, Unity Bank representative who noted that the bank commenced operations in 2006 sequel to the merger of 9 banks namely: Pacific Bank, New Nigerian Bank (NNB), Bank of the North, First Interstate Bank, Intercity Bank, Société Générale bank and Tropical Bank, disclosed that total sum of N16 million stamp duty was collected so far.

In his intervention, Hon Oke directed that the representative of Unity Bank should get details of Stamp duty collected by all.the 9 banks before the merger and report back within 7 days for further legislative action.

Similarly, Mr Taiwo Adeneye, Executive Director Banking Operations for Union Bank confirmed receipt of total sum of N452.529 million between January 2016 and 15th November 2019.

On his part, Mr Kolade Ayoola who spoke on behalf of Wema Bank confirmed receipt of N783.849 million stamp duty.

Speaking on the deadline, Hon Oke issued 7day ultimatum to all the banks to submit the list of accounts of MDAs domiciled with them in deviant to the TSA policy dated back to 2015.

During the Tuesday investigative hearing, representatives of Zenith Bank confirmed the receipt of N1.610 billion stamp duty on behalf of NIPOST while Ecobank confirmed the receipt of a total sum of N12.69 billion of all electronic transactions, out of which the sum of N4.648 billion is for Stamp Duty on behalf of NIPOST.