L-R: Dimeji Bankole, Sanusi Lamido, David Mark
The newly-constituted Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission has demanded for briefing from the senior management staff of the commission on how the controversial jumbo remuneration of federal lawmakers was arrived at.The Chairman of the RMAFC, Mr. Elias Mbam, who fielded questions from journalists after a news conference in Abuja on Monday, promised that the RMAFC would take a holistic look at the jumbo package.
“I have demanded that the management should provide me information on this. We will take a look at the issue holistically,” he said.
THE PUNCH had reported that the salary and allowances of a senator total N15.18m per month and those of a member of the House of Representatives, N10.59m.
To keep the federal lawmakers in office for one year, the Federal Government spends a staggering N67.32bn on their salaries and allowances.
RMAFC had in 2009 prepared a bill meant to reduce the official earning of the lawmakers in conformity with the directive of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua following the global financial crisis.
However, the bill could not get the approval of the National Assembly.
Mbam had ealier at the news conference, described as outdated, the revenue sharing formula currently in use in the country.
Explaining that the current formula was put in place by the military, he added that a committee to assist the commission prepare a new revenue sharing formula would be constituted soon.
He said, “I intend to establish a committee on a new revenue sharing formula immediately. The one we are using now is quite old. Most of the bases are already overtaken by events. We will look at a new formula that will be fair to all Nigerians.”
Revenue sharing formula, which has remained a controversial subject in the Nigerian federation, refers to the proportion of resources accruing to the federation that goes to each of the three tiers of government.
It also defines the proportion of resources that must be retained in the territories where they are generated as well as what goes to the agencies of government that collect the revenues on behalf of the federation.
Currently, 13 per cent of mineral resources known as derivation go to the oil – producing states. Four per cent of the money collected by Nigeria Customs Services is given to the organisation as the cost of collection.
Similarly, the Federal Inland Revenue Services is given seven per cent of the money it collects to cater for the cost of collection.
After these deductions, the revenues are pulled together – both mineral revenue and non- mineral revenue – are pulled together and shared among the three tiers of government.
The Federal Government gets 52.68 per cent. The state governments get 26.72 per cent while the local government councils get 20.6 per cent.
From Value Added Tax, four per cent cost of collection is assigned to FIRS.
After this deduction, the net revenue is shared among the three tiers of government in the proportion of the Federal Government, 15 per cent; state governments, 50 per cent; and local government councils, 35 per cent.
The RMAFC is charged with the responsibility of designing and reviewing the nation’s revenue sharing formula in line with changing realities as well as the remuneration of political office holders. Its work, however, must be approved by the National Assembly.
It is also a statutory member of the Federal Account Allocation Committee, the Local Government Joint Account Allocation Committee, the Joint Tax Board and the Commission of Ecological Fund.
Mbam, a former Minister of State for Finance, also said the commission would pay more attention to new sources of revenue rather than concentrating on the traditional sources that had fed the federation account in the past.
He said, “The revenue accruable to the federation account comes from oil and gas, FIRS, Customs and DPR. We need to take appropriate measures to expand the nation‘s sources of revenue.
Source:Punch
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