John Alechenu, Abuja
The Joint Senate Committee on the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure and Fiscal Strategy Paper, has demanded for details of revenue remittances from government Ministries, Agencies and Departments.

The committee has also hinted on moves to end the culture of revenue-generating agencies spending out of such funds without appropriation.

Chairman of the joint committee, Senior Sani Musa, who is also the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, said this at a meeting of the committee, in Abuja, on Monday.

He also directed the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, to collate details of revenues generated, and remittances made to the federation account as well as generate a list of defaulting MDAs.

The Senate Joint Committee is made up of the Committees on Finance, Appropriations, National Planning and Economic Affairs; Local and Foreign Debts.

They are currently engaging heads of federal ministries, departments and agencies on the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF-FSP).

In his remarks during the meeting, Senator Musa said, “The National Assembly is working hard to protect the economy of the country.

“The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) for instance, is a Nigerian entity it must abide by the Nigerian rules, it must abide by the ground norms. When it is due to remit, it must do so.

“No agency of the government should come before us to say they are exempted from remitting revenues to the consolidated revenue funds.

“The Accountant General should take note of the agencies that had yet to remit their revenues to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).

“You should liaise with the Committee’s secretariat so that we can find time to reconvene like this to sort out those issues.”

Musa spoke after listening to presentations by the Nigerian Institute of Legal and Advanced Studies and the Nigerian Maritime Academy on delayed remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Account as required by law.

The committee chairman insisted that the MDAs must present a breakdown of their revenue collection and remittances from January to date to assist the committee in accomplishing its task.

He noted that MDAs were aware that any action in breach of financial regulations was a breach of the law.

According to him, agencies must work toward remitting the revenue due to the government upon collection without delay.

He also requested that all receipts of remittances be made available to the committee.

Musa raised issues of disparity of revenue projections and remittances based on presentations of Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) and presentation by Office of Accountant General for the Federation.

He also urged the Accountant General of the Federation to interface with MDAs for reconciliation of remmitances made and revenue projections in the 2026-2027 MTEF and FSP.

The committee chairman also requested for detailed breakdown of remittances arising from revenue collected from stamp duties by the MDAs.

Musa said there was the need for reconciliation of the remmitances in line with the nation’s financial laws and Fiscal Responsibility Act.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Mrs Oluwatoyin Madein, had earlier in her presentation said her office often engages the MDAs to reconcile their accounts and remmitances made to government in line with financial laws.

Also the Director -General of the Debt Management Office, (DMO) Mrs.Patience Oniha, while responding to a question on new government loan request explained that Nigeria needs to challenge itself on revenue generation given its projection on debt services.

Among the MDAs that made presentations on their revenue projections for the 2024-2026 MTEF and FSP were : the Office of Accountant General of the Federation, (OAGF), Nigeria Maritime Academy, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

Others include: the The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA),, Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), Debt Management Office, Office
among others.

The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) Joint Matriculation and Examination Board (JAMB) and the Federal Mortgage Bank were asked to appear at another day for re- presentation of their expenditure and revenue projections.

Earlier, the Accountant General said, “I am here to make a presentation on the 2023 budget presentation.

“The office of the Accountant-General of the Federation is saddled with the treasury management of recipts and expenditures.

“In the area of revenue, we are earning the monitor, accounting and remittances through collaboration and synergy of various agencies of the government that are critical in revenue generation.

“The office is equally looking at the MTEF that has been put together by the office of the budget and economic planning.

“I will highlight figures from 2020 to 2023.
From the federation account, in 2020 the budgeted revenue was put N7.9tn, and the actual gross revenue was N8tn while net distribution was N7.6tn.

“In 2021 budget was N9.2tn while the actual gross inflow was N9.3tn and the net inflow was N7.7tn.

“In 2022, the budget was N15tn, the actual revenue was N12.2tn, the net distribution was N8.6tn.

“In 2023, the Revenue projection was N13,7tn, as at October, the total revenue inflow was N12.4tn

“Under the Stamp Duty, the budget for 2020 was N17.3bn while the actual was N119bn,

“In 2021, the budgeted amount was N16.8bn, while the generated amount N33.94bn.

“In the year 2022, the budget stamp duties was N16.8bn while the generated amount was N53.5bn.

“In 2023, the budgeted amount was N44.46bn and the generated amount was N53bn.

“For the IGR in 2020 was N871.3bn, while the actual amount N532,9bn

“In 2021, the budgeted amount was N1.06tn ehile the generated amount was N1.06tn. In 2022 the budgeted amount was N2.2tn while the amount collected was N1.39tn.

“In 2023, the budget was N2.6tn, while actual amount was N1.42tn as at Septemeber 2023.

“We can only project IGR for 2024 and we put that on 20% mark up of the budget of 2023 which is N3.1tn.”