NASS SET UP COMMITTEE TO PROBE REVENUE SHORTFALLS 14-01-25
By Sadiq Aminu The National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance has set up a special panel to probe a shortfall of over N4 trillion revenue due to indiscriminate waivers by agencies of government.
The joint committee, co-chaired by Senator Sani Musa and Mr. James Faleke, held a hearing to probe the revenue profiles of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) and Government-Owned Enterprises (GOEs) ahead of the 2025 budget.
The hearing was to enable the Senate and House of Representatives Committees to develop accurate and realistic revenue projections for 2025.
The panel was set up followed a motion moved by Senator Adamu Aliero, who noted that the issue of waiver, has caused serious shortfall between what is supposed to be collected as revenue and what is actually collected.
“If someone is given a waiver, we have to find out who gave that waiver. A shortfall of over N4 trillion is not a small amount. We found out that over N 4.9 trillion has not been remitted. We should set up an investigative committee that would investigate all the money that has not been remitted,”
Co-chairman, Musa, said the Committee was aware that a lot of GOEs collected revenues from other sources and they never disclose them.
He said MDAs should not be surprised to see that zero allocation is made to them if they are unable to present themselves and defend what they have presented to the budget office.
The Joint Committee on Finance threatened to stop the Federal Government’s grant to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board in the 2025 budget proposal.
The Committee queried the presentation by the JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, that the agency remitted N4 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, while it got a grant of N6 billion from the Federal Government.
JAMB was also queried for other issues including allocating the sum of N1.1 billion for refreshments and meals in the 2025 budget proposal.
Professor Oloyede attempted to make more clarification but was directed to come back in three days with a more comprehensive presentation.
The Committee also queried the Federal Road Safety Corps for not remitting the sum of N8 billion it generated in 2024.
This followed the presentation by the Deputy Corps Marshal, representing the Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed, who said though they had a target of N10 billion, they generated N13 billion.
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, said the 2024 budget is the first full year budget of the present administration.
He said the lessons learned from 2024 formed the basis of the assumptions in the 2025 budget which is designed to generate more revenue for the government and provide solutions for the economy.
Agencies that were invited include the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Federal Road Safety Corps, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission among others