In 4years, FG Records N2.22trn Independent Revenue Shortfall
Between January 2015 and December 2018, the Federal Government recorded a shortfall of N2.22trn in independent revenue from its agencies captured under the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The Act stipulates that any government agency that generates revenue must remit 80 per cent of its operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund account. Some of these agencies are the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria Shippers Council, Nigeria Export Promotion Council, National Health Insurance Scheme, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, and Nigeria Communications Commission among others.
Over the years, many of these agencies have been underpaying revenue into the coffers of government. The development had made it difficult for the Federal Government to achieve its revenue target based on the annual budget approved for these agencies.
Investigations by our correspondent on Friday in Abuja showed that between the 2015 and 2018 fiscal periods, the revenue target set by the government could not be achieved. Further findings showed that the cumulative revenue target for the four year period was estimated at N3.64tn.
However, during the period under review, the cumulative actual amount generated by these agencies was just N1.42tn, resulting into a shortfall of N2.22tn. Further analysis of the revenue figures showed that in 2015, the budgetted amount set as revenue was N489.25bn out of which actual revenue of N354.03bn was generated.
For 2016, the government was more ambitious by setting a target of N1.5tn only for the agencies to realise just N398.19bn. It was learnt that the poor revenue performance made the Federal Government to reduce the 2017 target to N807.57bn.
However, the actual collection was worse than what was earned in the previous years as only N216.66bn was the amount generated. For the 2018 fiscal period, the revenue target was pegged at N847.95bn while the actual amount generated was put at N454.34bn.
Speaking on the revenue underperformance, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said that a lot of initiatives were being implemented to boost the ability of the agencies to achieve their mandate.
She said, “Independent revenues are a critical part of the revenue mix of this country. We have not seen optimal performance yet of independent revenue, but I must say that there has been some improvements.
“The independent revenue that was generated in 2018 was N454.34bn, this is against a budgeted figure of N847.95bn, representing 54 per cent performance.
“In 2017, actual independent revenue performance was 25 per cent of the target, so progress is being made by the government-owned enterprises and returns are beginning to gradually increase.”
She said that while the 2018 revenue performance of government had a negative variance of 45 per cent of the year’s budget target, all efforts had been channelled towards increasing revenue performance.
“Consequently, we are working towards establishing a credible baseline. Thereafter, we will pro-actively manage the realisation of budgetted revenues under the umbrella of the Presidential Revenue Monitoring and Reconciliation Committee that is headed by the Director- General of the Budget Office of the Federation,” she added.
