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An Ad-Hoc Committee of the National Economic
Council (NEC) has reported that a number of
revenue-generating agencies may have significantly
under remitted returns to the Federation Account.
The committee made the report available on
Thursday at the monthly NEC meeting presided over
by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The Council had previously ordered the forensic
audit to review remittances of the agencies
covering 2010 to May 2015.
Out of the 18 Agencies in which forensic audit was
conducted, the Committee completed work on 13
Agencies, while two are ongoing and three are not
revenue generating.
The 13 include: the Nigerian Maritime
Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),
the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) the Federal
Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) the Nigerian
Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) and the
Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) among
others.
The two outstanding agencies are the Customs
Service and the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC).
A statement by Laolu Akande, Senior Special
Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity,
Office of the Vice President, however, said that
while Council received an updated interim report, a
final report is awaited next month.
The forensic audit covers the period from 2010 –
May 2015.
According to the statement, “The Council was
informed that there were possible significant under-
remittances from certain Revenue Generating
Agencies to the Federation Account, among other
accounts.
“Council was also informed of questionable loans
granted by some of the Revenue Generating
Agencies”.
The NEC directed the Committee to conclude its
report under four weeks and fully report back to it
in the next meeting
Also at the NEC meeting, Finance Minister, Mrs
Kemi Adeosun, noted that a list of about 500
Nigerians with property and trusts abroad has been
obtained to determine their tax compliance status
at home.
She explained that such Nigerians can take
advantage of the Voluntary Assets & Income
Declaration Scheme, VAIDS, to settle past taxation
defaults.
Letters, she said, would soon be going out to these
Nigerians, including a number of prominent ones,
asking them to take advantage of the tax amnesty
in order to avoid prosecution and fines by simply
paying up their tax defaults.
The VAID amnesty is available till March next year.
Adeosun informed the Council that the month of
October 2017 has recorded the highest amount of
VAT collections ever recorded in the country in a
single month, standing at over N89 billion.
She told Council that Government is targeting N120
billion on a monthly basis in the coming years.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning Udo
Udoma who gave an update on the economy, noted,
that signs of recovery had been observed since Q3
2016 and the Recovery consolidated in Q3 2017,
with GDP doubling to 1.40%
According to him, Non-oil GDP contracts in Q3
2017 increased by 0.76% after growing in Q1 R Q2
2017, while the Services Sector is still in the
negative; the Manufacturing Sector was negative in
Q3 2017 also.
Akande’s statement further said that the minister
revealed that “Due to high inflationary pressures,
household consumption expenditures remain
constrained, though it appears such pressure is
easing.
“Headline inflation has declined since January –
reflecting tight monetary policy.
“Food price increases have remained persistent but
slowing down.
“The total value of capital importation at the end of
Q3 2017 stood at $4.14 billion (131.3% growth
year-on-year) he said.
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