FG companies owe it N2.7trn

ENTERPRISES owned by Federal Government are currently withholding N2.7 million ought to have been remitted as operating surpluses.

Director General, Budget Office of the Federation (BOF), Mr Ben Akabueze who spoke during his presentation at a Town Hall meeting with Chief Executive Officers of GOEs in Abuja said Nigerians were not getting commensurate benefit from N40 trillion invested in the 39 enterprises.

He said continuous underperformance of the GOEs has made it difficult to achieve enhanced domestic revenue mobilisation from operating surpluses of the GOEs.

He disclosed that President Muhammadu has mandated that urgent corrective action is taken to correct the anomalies because “despite huge sums, the Federal Government has invested (circa N40 trillion) in these agencies, what is usually remitted to the Treasury in terms of dividend or surplus at the end of each operating year is mostly insignificant.

“The record shows that few of the GOEs declare surpluses. In effect, the Nigerian taxpayers/general public have not benefited much from these investments agencies.

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“Out of the total projected sum of N807.57bn independent revenues in 2017, only N216.66 billion, representing 26.8% performance, was remitted by GOEs and revenue generating MDAs.

“The financial year (FY) 2017 and Jan – Sept 2018 budget performance clearly reveal that we have a serious revenue challenge,” he declared.

Some of the initiatives being taken to address the revenue problem include; deployment of new/improved technology to improve revenue collection; upward review of tariffs and tax rates where appropriate; stronger enforcement action against tax defaulters; tighter performance management framework for SOEs; and implementation of Executive Order 2.

Executive Order 2 stipulates that “all agencies whether or not listed on the Fiscal Responsibility Act, shall, on or before the May of every year, cause to be prepared and submitted to Minister of Finance and Minister of Budget & national Planning, their schedule of Revenue & expenditure estimates for the next three years.

“All Agencies shall, on or before the end of July every year, cause to be prepared and submitted to the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Budget and National Planning their annual budget estimates which shall be derived from the estimates of revenue & Expenditure as projected in their three-year schedule.”