President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday swore in the chairman of Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) Mr Mohammed Bello at the council chambers of the State House.
Speaking to State House correspondents after the brief ceremony, the new RAMFC chairman assured that the commission would assist the Buhari administration to get more revenue for the federation and block leakages.
He said the commission, under his leadership, would implement its constitutional responsibility of monitoring accruals to the federation account and disbursement.
He said the commission would also strict implementation of the monetisation policy and address issues concerning the salaries of political office holders and judicial officers as enshrined in the country’s constitution.
“The task is challenging. We all know the situation that Nigeria is, or even globally, when you look at contemporary African countries like South Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Egypt, all the economic issues that are facing including Nigeria.
“We had the COVID-19, we had recession, we now have the war with Ukraine, which has affected many countries and revenues are down all over.
“So our task, as revenue mobilization is how we can assist Mr. President, to get more revenue for the Federation, block leakages, looking at the constitutional responsibility of the Commission, which of course are, monitoring of accruals to federation account and disbursement, and also monetization, taking care of the salaries of political office holders, and judicial officers, as enshrined in the Constitution that had not been reviewed since 2008. And I think there is agitation for that.
“And also, from time to time, come up with a new revenue allocation formula, which the commission successfully did, sometimes I think, in February this year, and we have submitted our report to Mr. President. What he stated at that time was that he was waiting to see what the National Assembly will do in terms of looking at concurrent list and exclusive list and constitutional amendment.
“If he’s satisfied with what the National Assembly does, he will forward a recommendation and make it an Act so that it becomes a law.
“Revenue allocation formula had not been touched for about 29 years, the Constitution says after a period of five years it can be reviewed, looking at the circumstances of the country, you know, more states have been created.
“And also our other responsibility, like monitoring of Central Bank of Nigeria, Ministry of Finance, Customs, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), those are huge task for the commission. And of course, don’t forget that revenue mobilization is also a statutorily member in the Joint Tax Board, local government joint account, ecological fund and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
“Our task is how we can get more revenue for Mr. President. I know there is a lot of debate on whether there is operating surplus, like some of the agencies of government will claim that what they are getting is surplus of revenue. Revenue is revenue as far as the commission is concerned.
“So my task is to get our members respond to the task that Mr. President gave them in 2019, when he swore in the new board that try as much as possible to get more revenue and strengthen your monitoring mechanism.
“That is what we are going to do with all the stakeholders Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Federal Ministry of Finance, every revenue generating agency, we have to collaborate and corroborate to be able to assist Mr. President get more revenue before he leaves office. This is a task that should be done by every meaningful member of the commission,” he said.
