CAC Generates N36bn From Company Registration, Others In Three Years

….Says All Operating Surplus Remitted To FG

Within the last three years covering 2017, 2018 and 2019, the Corporate Affairs Commission generated and remitted the sum of N36bn for the Federal Government through fees collected from registration of companies and annual filings among others.

The Registrar-General, CAC Alhaji Garba Abubakar, gave the figure while responding to questions from journalists on claims that the commission failed to remit operating surplus to the coffers of government in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

The FRA stipulates that any government agency that generates revenue must remit 80 per cent of their operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund account.

Some of these agencies are the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria Shippers Council, Nigeria Export Promotion Council, National Health Insurance Scheme, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, and Nigeria Communication Commission among others.

Over the years, many of these agencies have been underpaying revenue into the coffers of government.

The development had made it difficult for the Federal Government to achieve its revenue target based on the annual budget approved for these agencies.

But speaking on the operations of the CAC, Abubakar said that it was untrue that the commission was in breach of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

He described CAC as a responsible agency of government, adding that over the years, the commission had been remitting it’s operating surplus to the coffers of government

Specifically, he said that the commission had remitted the sum of N485m into the Consolidated Revenue Account as operating surplus for the 2017 fiscal period.

He said the N485m was paid in two tranches of N100m which was paid last year and N385m paid this year.

For the 2018 financial year, he said the commission could not remit any operating surplus since it made a loss during the period.

The CAC Boss noted that since the commission did not made any profit in 2018, it would be practically impossible to remit operating surplus for that year.

For the 2019 financial period, he said the financial statements has just been concluded and awaiting the auditors approval.

He said, “CAC is a responsible agency and over the years, we ve been remitting our operating surplus to government.

“This 80 per cent is arrived at after the reconciliation of the statement by the auditors from the Accountant-General for the Federation for 2017.

“And at the end of the reconciliation, the sum of N485m was accessed as the amount outstanding for the Commission.

“When we resumed, N100m has already been paid and the balance of N385m has now been fully settled. For 2018, the commission recorded loss as and you don’t pay operating surplus when you record a loss.

“Our financial statements for 2019 has just been concluded and awaiting the auditors to send their report. Once the report is sent, we will forward it to the office for what will be our operating surplus.”

On the issue of outstanding pension liabilities and unremitted taxes, he said the backlogs have been cleared.

Specifically, he said the management had settled its pension indebtedness of over N1.6bn to workers of the commission, while Pay As You Earn liability of N1.2bn had been fully settled.

He said, “When I came in January, I met outstanding liabilities of about N4bn on taxes, staff pension contributions. We had outstanding pension contributions dating back to 2018, 2019 that has not been remitted.

“As we speak, we have cleared all the backlogs of contributions for 2018. We couldn’t pay 2019 because it was not budgeted for this year. So we factored it against 2021 budget.

“We had settled all our tax obligations on Pay As You Earn because there was a liability of over N1.2bn which has been fully settled.

“We are up to date in pension contributions and we have paid up to July this year. It is sad that deductions were made but not remitted.”