Some banks still holding TSA money, says Adeosun

Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance, says some deposit money banks are still sitting on monies supposed to be remitted to the treasury single account (TSA).

The minister made this statement on Thursday while speaking on Sunrise Daily, a programme on Channels TV.

In August 2015, the federal government directed all ministeries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to make payments into a treasury single account (TSA).

At that time, the government said the directive will promote transparency.

“As far as I know, all the agencies are on the TSA. Where there is work going on is that we have had information that some banks renamed accounts just before TSA in order words some banks are still sitting on our funds.

“We’ve written to the bank MDs to say look if you suspect that some funds may belong to the federal government, check with the office of the accountant general.

“We gave them a window, some returned some money but we are going out to do some verification because we suspect that some of our money is still out there but the compliance has been good.”

Adeosun said the money generated by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) does not go directly to the federal government but shared by the three tiers of government.

“Firstly, N2.11 trillion is not a huge amount of money. It sounds very large. In the context of what Nigeria spends, it’s nothing infact it’s woeful,” she said.

“As I said, we’re tax to GDP of 6%. It’s nothing to celebrate. Now let me explain about FIRS. FIRS collects company taxes and VAT, that is the money shared in FAAC every month.

“So that money is being shared within the three tiers of government. Federal, state and local government. The money being shared also includes oil revenue. FAAC of this month was N550 billion so that included FIRS money, customs and oil money. Those are the three constituents.

“It’s almost like double counting when you look at FIRS on its own so don’t think all that money is going to the federal government, no it’s shared amongst the three tiers of government. So it’s not that much.”

In July, the federal high court in Lagos granted an interim order directing seven banks to remit the TSA funds in their custody.

The affected banks are United Bank of Africa (UBA), Skye Bank Plc, First Bank Plc, Keystone Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc.

Skye Bank was the only deposit money bank that admitted to holding funds belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).