Revenue Commission Groans Under Cash Squeeze
From Cletus Akwaya in Abuja
With only N30 million approved for its overhead costs in the 2004 budget, operations at the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) may soon grind to a halt due to cash squeeze.
And to forestall this, the Commission at the weekend took its case to the House of Representatives where it appealed for urgent action to save it from its present cash crunch.
In the approved budget for 2004, the Commission's allocation for overheads was cut down to 85% while it had Zero-Capital allocation.
Chairman of the commission, Engr. Hamman Tukur, who called on the Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaji Bello Masari disclosed that the Commission made a budgetary proposal of N296 million for Overheads in the 2004 fiscal year but was shocked to observe that the 2004 Appropriation Act contained only N30 million as Overhead Costs for the Commission. This, he said, translated to a reduction by 85 per cent over the N189 million approved and released to the Commission in the 2003 Appropriations Act.
Tukur who was represented by a Federal Commissioner, Alhaji Magaji Muazu said even the last year's allocation of N188 million, was inadequate, as the Commission had to make occasional appeals for extra budgetary releases to pull through the year.
In a statement yesterday, the Commission said it strongly believes that if the situation is not rectified through a supplementary appropriation or special grants, most of its activities would be put on hold for the rest of the year considering that as at March 31, 2004, the sum of N23,616,639.00k had been released to the Commission as Overhead Costs out of the N30 million contained in the approved budget.
Muazu disclosed that the Commission spends about N10 million annually in renting office accommodations for its Head Office Annex in Abuja, which accommodates two Departments of the Commission as well as its four Zonal Offices at Calabar, Kaduna, Maiduguri and Umuahia.
But only N810,800.00k was provided for rent of Office Accommodations in the Overhead Cost.
He cited NEPA bills for January-April 2004 for the Head Office alone which amount to N1.4 million but the 2004 budget provides just N.5 million for the whole year.
For telephone services, the statement said the Appropriations Act 2004 provides the sum of N250,000.00k, which would not meet the bills for two months as the Commission constantly communicates with the relevant tiers, and arms of government and other relevant stakeholders.
He further stated that in line with the Federal Government's policy on insurance, the Commission insured all its assets and has received a Debit Insurance Note from Messrs. President Insurance Brokers indicating the sum of N16,6 million as premium. He added that only a disappointing N381,086.00 was approved for insurance premium. The duties of the Commission such as verification of indices and monitoring of accruals into the Federation Account involve a lot of field activities in the 36 states and 774 Local Govern-ments of the country yet only N.5 million was provided for these activities in the 2004 budget.
"The Commission operates in a Committee System like the National Assembly, but besides its Chairman and his Deputy, none of the 36 Commissioners has an office" the statement noted. It added that for this reason, the Commission had obtained a Due Process Certificate for the construction of Phase II of the Head Office and service works at a cost of N912 million.
It regretted that the approved capital budget for year 2004 contains a zero capital allocation for the Commission whereas the commission had submitted a capital budget proposal of N1.3 billion that would move forward the project and other capital works of the Commission.
Head of Information and Public Affairs at the Commission, Mallam Yushau Shuaib in a telephone interview with THISDAY however, clarified that the Revenue Formula, expected to be released soon, will not be affected by the cash crunch, as adequate arrangements had been made for that purpose.
He said the problems of the deduction and zero allocation might have occurred during the National Assembly Harmoniza-tion process over the 2004 Budget.
|
