| The Federal Government, in a bid to check the high level of under-remittance of funds by revenue-collection agencies, has issued fresh guidelines for the computation of operating surpluses.
The new guideline that will guide the preparation of the agencies’ financial statements for the next three years covering up to 2019 is contained in a circular signed by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun. It was addressed to top government officials such as the Chief of Staff to the President, all ministers, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, National Security Adviser, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and all service chiefs. The circular, according to findings, has also been sent to the chief executives of all the agencies mandated by the government under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 to generate and remit revenue into the Consolidated Revenue Fund account. Some of these agencies are the Central Bank of Nigeria, Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria Shippers’ Council, Nigeria Export Promotion Council, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, National Pension Commission, Bureau for Public Enterprises and the Nigerian Communications Commission. Thirty-three revenue generating agencies had been indicted by the government for not remitting a total sum of N450bn into the CRF account. The development made President Muhammadu Buhari to issue an executive order for the funds to be recovered and measures put in place to guide against under-remittance in the future. In the new guideline titled: ‘Preparation of estimates of revenue and expenditure by corporations, revenue collections agencies’, the finance minister warned that there would be severe sanctions for violators of the new template. She said, henceforth, all the revenue-generating agencies of the Federal Government must prepare and submit to her office estimates of revenue and expenditure as well as their annual budgets for the next three years. |
Source: Punch
