The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris has disclosed that the Federal Government has within a period of two years incurred a total of N16 billion as transaction costs on the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
In a statement issued by the Director of Press, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Johnson Oise, revealed that as a result of the amount spent within the disclosed period, the Federal Government would no longer bear the cost of transmission of funds into the TSA.
The statement said the Federal Government would no longer bear the service charge on all payments to its Ministries, Departments and Agencies as such costs would be borne by the payer.
“Within the last two years, the government spent almost N16 billion in this direction which ordinarily should be borne by those making payments.
“So, it is time for Nigerians to pay for the services that they receive and the government will take whatever is due to it without necessarily incurring the cost.
“In the old tariff regime, the Federal Government bore the charges on all transactions to the service providers on behalf of payers.’’
Nairametrics had reported that Nigerians who use Remita to make payments into the TSA of the Federal Government would have to bear the costs associated with using the platform.
This is because the Federal Government of Nigeria has directed an immediate implementation of the global e-payment pricing system whereby the people making payments bear the costs for the service rendered.
To this effect, Remita issued a statement informing its customers about the immediate implementation of the directive starting November 1st, 2018.
According to the statement which was sent to Nairametrics, users of Remita will now have to take care of the service fees which will be associated with every single transaction they make on the platform; henceforth.
The federal government owed the service providers for over 2 years! Yet service was being provided.