Following the ongoing investigation by the Senate Committee on Finance on Remittances of Internally Generated Revenue(IGR) by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and payment of 1% Stamp Duties on all federal contracts.
some government agencies have started opting out of funding from the federal budget and refunding millions of due revenues to Consolidated Revenue of the Federation (CRF).
The action as stated by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Olamilekan Adeola (APC Lagos West) is targeted at reducing yearly budget deficit and getting more revenue to fund budgets.
Selling the idea to heads of National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control ( NAFDAC) , NIGCOMSAT and Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC ) at an interactive session in Abuja on Wednesday, Adeola said with aggressive internally generated revenues, the agencies should conveniently opt out of the yearly federal budget.
Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor Moji Adeyeye, had told the committee that her agency could conveniently exit the federal budget to the extent of all overheads as well as capital provisions, adding that they could actually start the implementation from the 2021 budget to free funds for other uses and hopefully reduce the size of budget deficit of about N6 trillion.
Similarly, the Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Mr. James Momoh stated that his agency was ready to completely exit the federal budget while promising to refund accumulated N28 million being 1% Stamp Duties on contracts awarded by the agency that were not remitted by contractors within one week.
NIGCOMSAT Limited, another agency of the federal government, also told the committee that they were ready to exit the federal budget with regards to overheads.
Its Director General Dr, Abimbola Alale told the committee that the agency would seek partners to inject capital into the agency programmes to yield revenue for the government as lack of capital in sufficient size has been the major impediment of the agency.
