RMAFC recovers over N704.2b, goes tough on MDAs that fail to remit to Federation Account

The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) recovered over N704.2 billion in the last five years, its Chairman, Elias Mbam has said.

Addressing reporters in Abuja yesterday at the valedictory briefing to mark the end of his tenure along with that of some members of the Commission, he said RMAFC “expanded the sources of revenue to the Federation Account, with recoveries of over N704.2billion been made, revenue leakages were addressed, verification  is being carried out on the collecting banks and other collecting agencies. Generally, the Commission has addressed vigorously all its Constitutional Mandate”.

Mbam said he did not have the exact amount recovered. “I don’t have the exact figure of which and which but it is basically in all the generating agencies. A greater proportion is from NNPC. There are some from Central bank, there are some from FIRS. I don’t have the exact figure.

The Commission, Mbam said, “periodically carried out monitoring and checks on the revenue collecting agencies, including Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), and Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, among others. It also conducted monthly post-disbursement monitoring through post-mortem Sub-Committee of Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). The Commission recovered over N704.2 billion Naira in the course of monitoring and checks within the period under review.”

To minimise leakages, the Commission, Mbam said, embarked on  the monitoring and reconciliation of collections and remittances by the collecting banks engaged by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigerian Customs Service (NCS). The exercise is expected to be a continuous one and over N12.6billion has been established as liability while over N1.8billion has been recovered and remitted to the Federation Account in Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Similarly, “the Commission is also collaborating with FIRS for the reconciliation and recovery of large amount of Tax Liabilities by Federal MDAs, states, and councils. Over N15 billion  has been recovered in the exercise from the reconciliation of tax liabilities of states and local government councils across the country,” Mbam said.

To enhance revenue accruals to the Federation Account (FA), the Commission, Mbam said “collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to ensure that Solid Mineral Sector contributed to the FA. The Solid Mineral Sector is now contributing to the FA for the first time.  Over N11.3 billion has been remitted to the Federation Account from this Sector as at July 2015.”

Mbam also disclosed that the Commission has identified other government agencies that are supposed to remit their generated revenue to the Federation Account but are yet to comply. He listed them as Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), among others as government agencies that defaulted in making remittances to the FA.

Specifically, Mbam frowned at the NPA, NIMASA and NCC agencies, which he said, “are supposed to generate money for the federation, because of the process they generate money, they use federation assets. Take for instance, the NPA, they are using the body of water. Body of water  is not for the federal government. It’s a national asset. So the money they generate should be for the nation, for the three tiers of government, the same thing with NCC. They give licenses for using the air. Does any state own the air? It is for the nation. So those agencies that generate money using our national assets should be owned by the federation.”

The Commission Chairman expressed concern that revenue from Stamp Duties in respect of electronic transfer running into billions of Naira “is not being remitted to the Federation Account. As a result, billions of Naira are being lost on a daily basis. I am happy to report that the process of correcting these anomalies has reached an advanced stage. Revenue from stamp duty is not generated and paid to the federation account. You know we have a clearing system where all transactions, electronic transactions go”