CBN’s N22.7tr Overdraft to Govt will be Audited – Wale Edun
The N22.7 trillion Ways and Means debt incurred by the Federal Government will be audited, Minister of Finance Wale Edun said yesterday.
The Coordinating Minister for the Economy explains that the measure, which has since 1999 been deployed by the various federal administrations to meet urgent financial obligations, including salary payments, might be used sparingly or eventually stopped.
Edun spoke at the ongoing Public Wealth Management Conference organised by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MoFI).
At the conference, Edun said: “There was an inherited amount, N22.7 trillion backlog. We are auditing it. It is like when I am ready to pay a loan at the bank, I ask for an audit before agreeing on the sum to pay.
“But apart from that, how do you close your ways and means gap? You get your revenue up and you get your expenditure down as much as possible.”
The minister also highlighted the importance of oil revenue and urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to increase production while cutting costs.
He added that efforts were being made to improve revenue collection from government-owned enterprises and enhance the efficiency of tax collection through digitisation and technology.
Edun said: “We have used technology, digitisation such that we have laid the foundation for a total revamp of Federal Government revenues and we expect the revenues to go up from what is due to government at the hands of other companies and enterprises will automatically now be deducted using digitisation.”
The minister also reiterated government’s plans to reform fiscal policies and tax systems to streamline processes, reduce taxes, and eliminate unnecessary levies and fees.
The plans include the introduction of an emergency intervention bill to rationalise taxes and improve revenue collection from both corporate sectors and individuals.
He said: “The fiscal policy is going to be revolutionised and announced very quickly through an emergency intervention bill. It is going to rationalise taxes and take more nuisance values away from the public sector. It is going to reduce the tax value you have on a handful of items; all the levies and fees particularly the ones that are directly controlled by the Federal Government will all be removed.
“On the revenue side, everything is being done to ensure that there are no leakages.”
On the expenditure side, he said that measures are being implemented to reduce inefficiencies, eliminate duplications and prevent leakages in public spending.
These, according to him, include addressing issues such as duty waivers, tax incentives, and contract expenditures to ensure that government funds are utilised effectively.
“On the expenses side, we are also implementing a robust expenditure framework that removes the leakages, removes double-counting, payment to people who are not supposed to be paid, whether it is from duty waiver or tax incentives or even expenditure of government on contract supplies, etc.”
At its plenary yesterday, the Senate expressed concern that Ways and Means had put inflationary pressures on the economy.
Its decision to raise an ad-hoc committee to investigate the disbursement and use of the N22.7 trillion followed its adoption of the report and recommendations of the Joint Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Finance, National Planning, Agriculture and Appropriation on the state of the economy and falling rate of the Naira.
The recommendation was made by the committees and the President Tinubu’s economic team last week.
