*Says cost of collection should be tied to performance of revenue agencies
Chigozie Amadi
The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), yesterday disclosed that over N7.31 trillion accrued into the federation account in the second half of 2023 compared to N5.24 trillion in the first half of the year.
Chairman, Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mr. Mohammed Bello Shehu, disclosed this in a statement made available to THISDAY.
He said of the gross revenue inflows, N1.69 trillion was transferred to the Exchange Gain Differential Account, leaving a balance of N5.47 trillion
Shehu said N3.26 trillion was also deducted as approved statutory deductions by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), with a balance of N2.20 trillion for distribution to the three tiers of government between July and December last year.
He further explained that of the N3.26 trillion deduction, N2.25 trillion was transferred to the Non-oil Excess Account as savings, leaving a net statutory deduction of N1.01 trillion with further augmentations for sharing among the three tiers of government received from some reserve accounts, particularly revenues maintained by the Federal Ministry of Finance/OAGF.
The RMAFC boss added that in the period under review, N4 trillion was distributed among tiers of government compared to N3.06 trillion disbursed to the tiers of government between January and June 2023.
According to him, statutory deductions in H2 2023 constituted 44.12 per cent of total gross inflows within the six months, compared to 42.31 per cent, including transfer to the non-oil excess account in H1.
Shehu further pointed out that of the gross revenue inflows into the federation account, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) remitted N874.64 billion in the review period compared to zero remittance in H1.
Also, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) remitted N1.56 trillion while the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) paid N3.65 trillion.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) also remitted N1.21 trillion in the review period.
This comes as the commission advocated that moving forward, the cost of revenue collection should be tied to the performances of Revenue Generating Agencies (RGAs), adding that this would improve revenue generation and remittances.
Shehu said such a move would further encourage RGAs to devise new strategies for enhancing revenue generation and remittances to increase the cost of collection.
He said, “We strongly advocate that payment of the cost of collection to RGAs should be tied to revenue performance. In other words, each RGA should receive a cost of collection commensurate with the revenue generated against its revenue target, as provided for in the Appropriation Act.”
According to him, the FIRS received N115.22 billion as the cost of collection on petroleum Profit Tax (PPT)/Company Income Tax (CIT) and N3.47 trillion for Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) collections within the period. Revenue from EMTL totaled N86.76 billion
The FIRS and NCS also received N85.66 billion as cost of collection on Value Added Tax (VAT), while N6.75 trillion was paid in as cancellation of tax credit from VAT in July.
He said from the federation account component, the NCS received N85.17 billion as the cost of collection for the period while NUPRC received N62.75 billion.
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) also received a refund of N82.91 billion as a penalty for gas flaring.
Revenues on gas flare penalty used to be federation account revenues before the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, which provided that such revenues should be paid 100 per cent to the authority.
