Editor
……Senate to probe tax waivers from 2015 to date.
The Chairman of the Joint Senate Committees on Finance, Appropriations, National Planning and Foreign Debt, Senator Sani Musa on Wednesday disclosed that the nation has lost N1.3 trillion to waivers to a deficit of N3 trillion.
The Senator representing Niger East senatorial district APC lamented that Nigeria has lost so much to waiver in the past.
The lawmaker while briefing newsmen said the Nigerian Senate disclosed that it approved the removal of waivers.
On the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
Recall, the Senate has approved the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
Senator Sani Musa emphasized the removal of waivers will bring in raw materials for production, and people import finished products into the Nigerian economy.
“We cannot continue to talk of waiver while we kill our local manufacturers.
“What we have today are cartels, who are not given back to Nigeria. We will take the bull by the horn.
“It doesn’t make any economic sense, when a waiver is granted, and nothing is gained,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Senate has passed the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP), with a borrowing plan of 7.8 trillion naira for 2024, nine trillion naira deficit and Federal Government total expenditure of 26 trillion naira.
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, announced an approval for 2024, the oil price benchmark of 73 dollars per barrel of crude oil, 1.78 million barrels per day and sustained as contained in the MTEF/FSP documents, special intervention (recurrent) of 200 billion naira, special intervention(capital) of 7 billion naira and and an exchange rate of 700 naira to a US dollar.
The Senate also resolved that all items locally produced should be banned from importation.
The joint committee chaired by Senator Musa Sani also observed that a significant number of the Federal Government’s revenue-generating agencies engaged in arbitrary, frivolous and extra-budgetary expenditure and recommended that a review of the laws of all revenue generating agencies be carried out.
Other recommendations are that the National Assembly begin the process of amending the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA, 2007) in order to enhance the agencies’ ability to enforce fiscal responsibility and impose sanctions on erring Corporations.
The recommendation that the subsidiaries of NIPOST are irregular and illegal hence should be wound-up and deregistered immediately equally drew an argument.
According to the chairman, the recommendation includes an investigation of the sum of 10 billion naira released by Ministry of Finance for the proposed
NIPOST restructuring and recapitalization, and the funds fully recovered if established to be injudiciously utilized by the relevant committee of the Assembly charged with the responsibility of fiscal prudence.
After the debate on it, the resolve was that further investigation be carried out before any cogent action is meted out.
Among the recommendations, is that all tax waivers not directly linked to non-governmental / non-profit organizations should not be granted and investigations conducted into all tax waivers from 2015 to date by the relevant committees of the senate.
Another recommendation that attracted a debate was the recommendation that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) work towards reducing its production and operational costs to increase available government revenue. After the polarized arguments, the resolution was adopted unaltered.
Other recommendations are that Federal Government Agencies ensure deployment of ICT in the collection of all revenues by MDAs including stamp duty collection activities in order to block leakages.
