Customs Duty: House of Reps Recommends Ecobank Suspension, Invites E-tranzact MD

The House of representatives committee on Customs has recommended the suspension of Ecobank PLC from collecting all Customs duties on behalf of Customs until the bank remits all outstanding of 4.4 billion naira it presently owes the Customs.

The recommendation is coming after months of deliberations between Ecobank PLC management on ways to remit the said amount to the Federal Government coffers.

The Committee was tasked with the responsibility of verifying, reconciling all revenue receipt and remittances of Customs duties and Excise levies for the period of January 2009 and 31st December, 2019.

The committee further, invited all the Banks to proffer ways to remit the unaccounted monies back to consolidated revenue account of the federal government.

However, after months of deliberations the hammer fell on Ecobank PLC for failure to convince the committee that it is ready to remit over 4.4 million naira it owes and also for its failure to submit financial report of its legacy bank, the defunct Oceanic bank it acquired.

The committee therefore recommended the suspension of Ecobank PLC from collecting Customs duties till further notice.

Other defaulting banks like Zenith Bank, Polaris Bank, Fidelity Bank and others were given one week to tidy up their books and remit monies owed or face suspension like Ecobank.

Meanwhile, the committee threatened to invoke a warrant of arrest on the Managing Director of eTranzact International PLC if he fails to appear before it on the date to be fixed by the panel.

At its sitting on Wednesday, the committee on customs and excise accused the company of allegedly “colluding with some banks to cheat” the Nigeria Customs Service.

Chairman of the committee, Leke Abejide investigating an alleged non-remittance of Customs Duties by Banks to the Federal Government, spoke at the hearing on Wednesday.
Abejide said the committee’s mandate is to block revenue leakages and ensure that all remittances are duly paid to the federal government.

The Committee adjourned to reconvene next week for its final report before submitting its report to the house for further legislative action.