RAMFC: Lawmakers Frustrating Review Of Revenue Allocations – Shehu

The Chair­man of the Revenue Alloca­tion, Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RAMFC), Muhammad Shehu, has lamented lack of Review of the Nigeria’s revenue al­location formula in the past 29 years, attributing the delay to the lawmakers at the National Assembly.

This was made known after Presi­dent Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in­augurated the Chairman, RAMFC, Muhammad Shehu, at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The brief event preceded the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presid­ed over by President Buhari.

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Speaking with State House correspondents, Shehu, who took over from his predeces­sor Engr. Alias Mbam, said, “Revenue allocation formula had not been touched for about 29 years. The constitution says after a period of five years it can be reviewed, looking at the circumstances of the country, you know, more states have been created.”

According to him, their other responsibility, like monitoring of CBN, monitor­ing of Ministry of Finance, Customs, NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Com­pany Ltd.) are huge task for the committee, stressing that revenue mobilisation is also a statutory member in the Joint Tax Board, Local Government Joint Account, a political fund, and NDDC.

The RAMFC chairman said that their task was how they can get more revenue for Mr. President, acknowledging that there was a lot of debate on whether there is operating sur­plus, like some of the agencies of government will claim that what they are getting is ‘stop loss of revenue’, pointing that “revenue is revenue as far as the commission is concerned.

“Revenue allocation for­mula had not been touched for about 29 years, the consti­tution says after a period of five years it can be reviewed, looking at the circumstances of the country, you know, more states have been created.

“We all know the situation that Nigeria is, or even global­ly, when you look at contem­porary African countries like South Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Egypt, all the economic issues that they are facing, including Nigeria. We had the COVID-19, we had recession, we now have the war with Ukraine, which has affected many countries and revenues are down all over.

“So our task, as revenue mo­bilisation is how we can assist Mr. President, to get more rev­enue for the federation, block leakages, looking at the consti­tutional responsibility of the commission, which of course are, monitoring of accruals, to federation account and dis­bursement, and also monetiza­tion, taking care of the salaries of political office holders, and judicial officers, as enshrined in the constitution that had not been reviewed since 2008. And I think there is agitation for that.”

Also, Shehu explained that from time to time, they come up with a new revenue allocation formula, which the commission successfully did, sometimes, in February, this year, noting that they have submitted their report to Mr. President. “What he stated at that time was that he was wait­ing to see what the National Assembly will do in terms of looking at concurrent list and exclusive list and constitution­al amendment”, he noted.

He said if President Buhari is satisfied with what the Na­tional Assembly did, he will forward a recommendation and make it “an Act so that it becomes a law.”

“Our task is how we can get more revenue for Mr. Pres­ident. I know there is a lot of debate on whether there is operating surplus, like some of the agencies of government will claim that what they are getting is stop loss of revenue, revenue is revenue as far as the commission is concerned.

“So my task is to get our members to respond to the task that Mr. President gave them in 2019, when he swore in the new board that try as much as possible to get more revenue and strengthen your monitoring mechanism.

“That is what we are going to do with all the stakehold­ers, FIRS and NNPC, Federal Ministry of Finance, every revenue generating agency, we have to collaborate and col­laborate to be able to assist Mr. President get more revenue before he leaves office. This is a task that should be done by every meaningful member of the commission.”