By Deborah Hassan
President Muhammadu Buhari has warned Heads of Revenue Generating Agencies to intensify efforts to meet their targets or face severe sanctions.
The warning came as the President signed the N13.588 trillion (Thirteen trillion, five hundred and eighty-eight billion Naira) 2021 Appropriation Bill and the 2020 Finance Bill into law at the Council Chambers, Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Ahmad Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, were witnesses to the signing, alongside the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, some cabinet ministers as well as a few top government officials.
Buhari said the Federal Government was intensifying domestic revenue mobilisation efforts in order to ramp up enough resources to fund the 2021 Budget.
He further said, “Revenue Generating Agencies, and indeed all Ministries, Departments and Government-Owned Enterprises, must work very hard to achieve their revenue targets, control their cost-to-revenue ratios, as well as ensure prompt and full remittance of revenue collections.
“Relevant Agencies are to ensure the realisation of our crude oil production and export targets. Heads of defaulting Agencies are hereby warned that they will be severely sanctioned. I also appeal to our fellow citizens and the business community, at large, to fulfil their tax obligations promptly,” said the President.
On the performance of the 2020 Budget, Buhari disclosed that it achieved 97.7 percent performance level, saying it was a commendable outcome which underscored the importance of his administration’s efforts, together with the Legislature, to return to the discipline of a January-to-December fiscal year.
“In spite of the adverse impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on the nation’s economy and the Government’s revenues, we have made appreciable progress in the implementation of the 2020 Budget. As at December 2020, we had released about One-point-Seven-Four-Eight Trillion Naira (N1.748 trillion) out of a total of the One-Point-Nine-Six-Two Trillion Naira (N1.962 trillion) voted for the implementation of critical capital projects, representing a performance of about Eight-Nine-Point-One Percent (89.1%),” he said.
Adding that the Minister of Finance would give additional briefing on the 2020 Budget performance in due course, the President commended the National Assembly for completing “the important appropriation process in good time,” adding that “the passage of the 2021 Federal Budget before the commencement of the 2021 fiscal year is in confirmation of our resolve to maintain a predictable January-December fiscal year, as provided for in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The signing of the budget comes exactly ten days after both chambers of the National Assembly passed the N13.6 trillion budget for 2021 and three days after it was transmitted to Mr Buhari for assent.
With the president’s assent, the bill has become law and the implementation is expected to commence in January for 2021 fiscal year.
The legislators had approved N13.6 trillion (13,588,027,886,107) against the N13.08 trillion proposed by the president in October.
The lawmakers added N505 billion to the proposed budget.
A breakdown of the approved budget figures shows about N496.5 billion approved for statutory transfers and N3.3 trillion for debt services.
The recurrent expenditure was put at N5.6 trillion with capital expenditure at N4.1 trillion and fiscal deficit at N5.2 trillion (5,196,007,992,292).
The President also signed the 2020 Finance Bill into law.