The House of Representatives has adopted the recommendations of its Ad-hoc Committee on Finance for the placement of 10 Agencies on cost of collection.
The Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Mr Saidu Abdullahi said the committee observed that some revenue generating agencies do not abide by the Finance Act on remittances.
According to him, “the 10 agencies are self-funding.”
Abdullahi explained that “they would be allowed to keep four percent of their Internally Generated Revenue to fund their operations and remit the rest.”
“Ten (10) out of the 63 Government Owned Enterprises. GOEs be placed on the cost of collections with immediate effect, just like FIRS, CUSTOMS, to serve as a test case for other GOEs which can be added in the future the list of this GOEs includes; NCC, CAC, NPA, NIMASA, NUPRC, NMPDRA, JAMB, NAFDAC; the proposed 2023 Finance Bill makes amendments of the existing Act and include the above-mentioned agencies,” he said.
Abdullahi also called for a common platform for reconciliation by Ministries, Department and Agencies for remittances.
On frequent borrowing by the government, Abdullahi said that “the revenue generation is the main problem of the country and not borrowing.”
He said; “For a developing economy, I don’t think we are doing too bad in terms of our borrowing. The emphasis should be on what we are generating. Are we generating enough?That’s where we need to lay our emphasis on.”
Mercy Chukwudiebere
