From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The federal government has expressed concern on the non-remittance of monies to the government coffers by revenue-generating agencies to the extent that a large chunk of money has been trapped in the banks.
This was disclosed in Abuja during an interactive session with the Chairman of Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Engineer Mohammed Bello Shehu and the Controller General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi.
According to the chairman of RMAFC, the non-remittance of monies has created room for a lot of funds being trapped with the stakeholders especially the commercial banks.
Consequently, he sought the CG’s support to recover the funds, deliberately improve revenue mobilisation and block revenue leakages.
“As you are aware, the major issue of concern to RMAFC is the non-remittance of monies to the government coffers, which has created room for a lot of funds trapped with the stakeholders especially the commercial banks.
We therefore seek to leverage your timely visit to enlist your support for the commission to recover these funds and deliberately improve revenue mobilisation, block revenue leakages and advise the present administration on appropriate measures to increase revenue generation for the Federation Account” he said.
Shehu recalled that his commission has the mandate to, not only monitor the actuals but to advise federal, states and local governments on fiscal efficiency.
“As you are aware, RMAFC is empowered amongst others to “monitor the accruals to and disbursement of revenues from the federation account” and advise the federal, state and local governments on fiscal efficiency and methods by which their revenue can be enhanced.
” Section 2b (iii) of the Revenue Mobilisation Act, CAP R7, LFN 2004 likewise authorises the commission to obtain regular and relevant information, data or returns from government agencies” he noted
In his remarks, the CG said that the customs target last year was N3.6 trillion but the service was able to recover N3.2 trillion.
“The Nigeria Customs Service is empowered by Section 4 of the NCS ACT 2023 to collect and account for revenue from import duties, excise duties, and other taxes as well as levies.The service receives an annual revenue target from the Federal Government. For the year 2023, the NCS was given a target of 3.684 trillion and generated the sum of 3.206 trillion, which represents 87 per cent of the total revenue target” he said.