By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
As part of measures to recover an aggregate revenue of N10.13 trillion to fund the 2022 Budget, Federal Government, has pegged the maximum expenditure of Government-Owned Enterprises (GOEs) at 50 per percent just as it has threatened to sanction those whose revenue performances and remittances fall short of their targets.
Speaking during the 2022 Budget Breakdown in Abuja, the Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed said that henceforth, the government will put in place effective implementation of the enhanced Performance Management Framework, including possible sanctions to those agencies who default on their targets.
According to her, there should be tighter expenditure control, including enforcing Finance Act 2020 provision to monitor the flow of the agencies’ revenues.
Other measures include, regular independent monitoring and reporting of revenue and expenditure performance of GOEs by both the Budget Office of the Federation and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
The minister noted that revenue generation remains the major fiscal constraint of the federal government adding that the systemic resource to mobilisation problem has been compounded by economic recessions.
“Several measures are being instituted under the administration’s Strategic Revenue Growth Initiatives to improve government and entrench fiscal prudence with emphasis on achieving value for money.
Other measures include, review of sectors eligible for Pioneer Tax Holiday Initiatives under the Industry Development Income Tax Relief Act (IDITRA), dimensioning the cost of tax waivers/concessions and evaluating their policy effectiveness” Ahmed, noted, adding that the government will set annual ceilings on tax expenditures to better manage their impact on already constrained government revenues and ensuring that Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) appropriately account for and remit their internally-generated revenues.
On borrowing, Ahmed reiterated that the loans would be used to finance critical development projects and programmes aimed at improving the economic environment and ensuring effective delivery of public services, insisting that the debts are sustainable.
“Overall, we do not have a debt sustainability problem but a revenue challenge which we will tackle to ensure our debts remain sustainable” she noted.
The President had Thursday on presented N16.39 trillion as the 2022 Budget proposal before a joint session of the National Assembly.
The proposed budget was titled: “Budget of Economic Growth and Sustainability”.
According to the president, the 2022 Budget is also the first in Nigeria’s history, where MDAs were clearly advised on gender responsive budgeting.
