The House of Representatives said the Federal Government was losing huge revenue to under remittances of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by government agencies.
It said if agencies of government were remitting adequate revenue, the government would have no business resorting to borrowing to finance the budget yearly.
The House directed the Budget Office of the Federation to deduct the balance of such under remittances from allocation to defaulting agencies, saying it was not fair to the system for agencies both in the private and public sector to refuse to remit revenue to government.
The Accountant-General of the Federation has also directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to refund about N52 billion it deducted from the Federations Account to the government treasury as operating surplus for 2018.
Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Hon James Abiodun Faleke, who made the position of the House known during an interactive session with government agencies on the 2021-2023MTEF/FSP frowned at the loss of over N7 billion to under remittances from the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), saying there was no law that permits any agency to spend the money it generates without the approval of the National Assembly.
The Committee had discovered a revenue of about N10 billion in the revenue of the agency from which nothing was remitted to the government treasury on the premise that the money was spent by the agency on inspection of factories of clients of the agency who want to either establish a factory or wants to import products.
Director Administration and Human Resources of NAFDAC, who represented the Director-General, Joseph Ayorinde Aina, claimed that they obtained the permission of the Budget Office of the Federation to spend the money generated through its user fee platform.
Faleke said: “You are talking about user fees and that you use it to travel either local or overseas. Don’t you have your overhead budget? Don’t you know that under your activities, you are going to travel and that you will present your overhead budget.
“When you are bringing your budget, you know your activities. Every agency is aware of their activities and one of your activities is that you need to go and carry out inspection which should have formed part of your overhead expenses and government will release the money to you.
“But the fact that you have a shortfall in releases does not empower you to spend your IGR. No agency of government is empowered to do that. Not even the Ministry of Finance or even Mr. President. It is clear. The president will tell you to go and do it according to the law.
“It is not right that government is losing about N7 billion to your expenditure; N7 billion which should have come to the system out of which you can then draw. Tell Madam that we will not take it. She is there to reform the system and we trust that she will do that. But you cannot spend the IGR the way you like.
“If you do that, the accounting officer can be prosecuted and we as National Assembly will see to that. In the past few weeks, we have been talking about Chinese loans when the money is there in the system. We have the money in Nigeria, but we are not doing the needful.
“We are not remitting what we are supposed to remit. The private sector will not remit the taxes and you, a government agencies being paid salaries will not remit. Where will the government get money to fund the capital projects when we have deficit budget every year?
“I don’t think it is fair on the system. An agency came here and said they will generate N100 million, but will spend N130 million.”
In their presentation, the Chief Finance Officer of the NNPC, Umar Ajiya informed the committee that in recent times they have been working hand in hand with Revenue Mobilisation, office of the Accountant-General of the federation, DPR, Inland Revenue, Nigeria Governors Forum and others almost on a monthly basis.
He said the Accountant-General of the Federation has directed the Corporation to refund N52 billion operating surplus to the Federations Account, adding that the NNPC has already paid about N25 billion of the money.
thenationonlineng
