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From Fred Itua, Abuja
Battle over the constitutional mandate on revenue collection and control took a centre stage in the Senate, yesterday, when a war of words ensued between the chairman of Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Ellias Mbam, Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, and chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami.
The battle focused primarily on powers for collection and monitoring revenues accruing into the Federation Account and the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF). The disagreement came to the fore when they made their separate submissions to the Committee on Finance on the 2021 Finance Bill.
While the chairman of RMAFC in his submissions, faulted section 68(2) of the proposed bill seeking exclusive power of revenue collection, monitoring and enforcement to FIRS, Minister of Finance, the Accountant – General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris and FIRS boss, said former’s functions were not threatened by the proposed legislation.
The said Section 68(2) states that “FIRS is the primary agency in charge of administration, assessment, collection, accounting and enforcement of taxes.”
Faulting the provisions, RMAFC chairman said there was no objection to FIRS being the primary agency responsible for assessment, collection and accounting, but objected to the exclusive power of enforcement, saying: “The exclusivity clause of enforcement to FIRS should not be granted and as such, be expunged.”
In a counter submission, the FIRS boss said RMAFC’s mandate to monitor revenue is not exclusive, as other relevant agencies or bodies like the Budget Office, Office of Accountant General of the Federation, Ministry of Finance, Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) etc, have concurrent mandates to monitor revenues.
The minister, in her submission, said RMAFC’s fundamental function is to monitor revenue accruing into the Federation Account and not the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).She said FIRS in the proposed bill is empowered to sanction non – compliant banks that fail to deliver quarterly returns, investigate tax evasions and other related crimes and several others.
The 2021 Finance has 12 existing Acts for amendments.
