Economy
Senate Tasks MDAs on N3trn Revenue Remittance
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are yet to remit over N3 trillion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federal Government between 2014 and 2020, says the Senate.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Sen. Solomon Adeola (APC- Lagos), made the revelation in a statement by Kayode Odunaro, his Media Adviser, on Sunday in Abuja.
The senator spoke at the ongoing investigation of remittances of revenue by MDAs and payment of 1 per cent stamp duty on contracts between 2014 and 2020.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Ms Zainab Ahmed, and Director-General of Budget Office, Mr Ben Akabueze, appeared before the committee.
Adeola said the unremitted revenue may have been trapped with the MDAs or spent on frivolous expenditures.
He said this is contrary to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2007.
He said the minister, director general, budget office, and the Accountant General of the Federation, were invited to speak on the unremmited funds which was revealed from investigations of the committee.
According to Adeola, the investigation has so far revealed that many agencies were involved in illegalities relating to expenditure of funds that should be remmited into CRF.
He said many of the agencies abused the concept of operating surpluses to shortchange government, relying on ministerial circulars over and above the constitution and FRA-2007 as passed by the National Assembly.
The Minister said the huge budget deficits accompanying our yearly budgets has forced government to resort to huge borrowing to finance these deficits.
“The committee decided to probe the revenue remittances by agencies of government.
“The government cannot continue to borrow yearly while the revenue from agencies that the government is financing with the borrowings are spent contrary to the laws of the land.
“From submissions already made and calculations from the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, about 60 Government-Owned Enterprises (GOEs), may have about N3 trillion of government revenue still unremitted in their coffers. Or already spent on frivolous expenditure contrary to the Constitution and FRA 2007,” Adeola said.
He said since the commencement of the investigation, some agencies had complied in paying back millions of naira with receipts from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
The senator said if these revenues were paid to the CRF for proper appropriation by the parliament during budget considerations, the size of the nation’s deficit would be reduced and hopefully minimise borrowing.
“We cannot continue to run government business as we used to do in this time when there are huge demands for government to fund needed infrastructure and other socio-economic programmes” he said.
Adeola also revealed that the investigation has also led to the willing exit of some agencies from the budget of the government, while relying on their generated revenue to fund aspects of their operations.
He noted that this would reduce their dependence on the federation budget and assist in reducing budget deficits.
Responding, Ahmed commended the committee for the ongoing probe of revenue remittances.
She noted that in recent times, there had been a noticeable increase in revenue from agencies to the CRF as required by law.
The minister, however, explained that the executive arm is also examining the application of the template of calculating and deducting operating surpluses by agencies of government.
She said this is to ensure that the right amount was paid to government. (NAN)
The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) continued its bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining N183 billion.
Accordingly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N59.532 trillion, gained N184 billion or 0.31 per cent to close at N59.715 trillion.
The All-Share Index also added 0.31 per cent or 303 points, to settle at 98,509.
68, against 98,206. 97 recorded on Tuesday.Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return increased to 31.
74 per cent.Gains in Aradel Holdings, Zenith Bank, United Bank For Africa(UBA), Oando Plc, Nigerian Breweries among other advanced equities drove the market performance up.
Market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 17 losers.
On the gainers’ chart, Africa Prudential, Conoil and RT Briscoe led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, N352 and N2.42 per share, respectively.
Golden Guinea Breweries followed by 9.95 per cent to close at N7.18, while NEM Insurance rose by 9.74 per cent to close at N10.70 per share.
On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N155.25, Secure Electronic Technology Plc trailed by 9.52 per cent to close at 57k per share.
Multiverse lost 7.63 per cent to close at N5.45, Haldane McCall dropped 6.07 per cent to close at N4.95 and Honeywell Flour shed 5.62 per cent to close at N4.70 per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 49.44 per cent.
A total of 320.10 million shares valued at N6.48 billion were exchanged in 7,943 deals, compared with 939.41 million shares valued at N12.81billion traded in 9,098 deals posted in the previous session.
Meanwhile, ETranzact led the activity chart in volume with 70.27 million shares, while Aradel led in value of deals worth N1.22 billion.(NAN)
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the Yuan, weakened 22 pips to 7.1870 against the dollar on Monday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the Yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the Yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
Arewa Youths Initiative for Energy Reforms (AYIFER), has urged Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to do everything possible to bring Kaduna Refinery back into operation.
National Coordinator of the group, Mr Bashir Al’Amin, stated this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.
Al’Amin specifically called on the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, to do all within his powers to rejuvenate the refinery and bring it up to global standard.
He said that having delivered the Port Harcourt refinery, coupled with the establishment of Dangote Refinery in Lagos, attention should be shifted to Kaduna refinery for easy spread of petroleum products.
“We are calling on Malam Mele Kyari to expedite action on Kaduna refinery so we can be at par with other regions in the country.
“We equally beg the NNPCL to do professional work in rehabilitating the old refinery and deliver a standard and functional petrochemical refinery and not a blending plant.
“Kyari should resist any temptation that could make him do something that can jeopardise his good image,” he said.
Al’Amin said that since the extinction of groundnut pyramid and textiles in Kano State as well as PAN in Kaduna State and with the Kaduna refinery getting moribund, a lot of youths had lost their jobs.
According to him, all their hopes in the north are tied to the legacy refinery, expressing the hope that God would use Kyari to deliver it well and on time.
He said that the group was solidly behind NNPCL in prayer and would be ready to celebrate the company if its expectations were met. (NAN)
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