Chairman, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Chief Victor Muruako has revealed that a total of 122 agencies are now required to pay operating surpluses annually into the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account of the Federal Government.
In furtherance of its drive to increase revenue generation, the Federal Government has added another 92 agencies to the original 30 list of agencies required to pay the operating surpluses into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The operating surplus, which is a component of value added and GDP, is the portion of income derived from production by incorporated enterprises that are earned by the capital factor.
The FRC Act 2007 makes it mandatory for listed government agencies to remit 80 percent of their annual operating surpluses to the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account of the Federal Government, also revenues generated by all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) must be reported on a gross basis prior to any deduction.
It is also expected that all self- funded Federal Agencies are to limit their annual expenditures from their internally generated revenues to not more than 75 percent of their total gross revenue, while fully funded agencies are to remit all their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account.
Some of the agencies covered under this act include the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria.
In 2017, the Joint Admission Matriculation’s board JAMB remitted ₦7.8 billion to the Federal government, the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Company also remitted ₦53 billion as operating cost into the coffers of the Federal Government, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has also remitted a total of ₦21.805 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federal Government.
The level of compliance by some MDAs has not been impressive, most MDAs have never credited the Consolidated Revenue Fund despite having the salary, capital, and overhead financed by the federal government. Has the Government imposed any sanctions on defaulting agencies?
The Fiscal Responsibility Commission recently raised an alarm that the Federal Government may be losing over ₦1 trillion due to the non-remittance of operating surplus revenue generating agencies. What measure is in place to block this leakage?
It is also saddening that some agencies of government have perfected arts of defrauding the country through deliberate wrong computations, express diversion of funds, and application of wrong accounting standards and the non-inclusive listing of all government corporations. Since its creation, the commission has only been able to attract ₦367 billion into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) from operating surplus of revenue generating agencies.
The Government currently targets ₦886 billion from this scheme and to achieve this the Government must come up with checks and balances that make it mandatory for all MDAs covered under this act to comply with this regulation. With the addition of new agencies to the list, the Commission must be ready to do more particularly with the unpredictable oil earnings and the apparent need to diversify the economy to improve government revenue base.