Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, budget, and national planning, has unveiled the federal government’s strategic initiative for a robust revenue generation that would meet the federal government’s N10. 74 trillion target, with which to fund the 2022 budget.
She said at the federal government’s 2022 Budget Public Presentation, in Abuja, on Wednesday, January 5, 2021, that revenue generation remained the major fiscal constraint of the federal government and that her team would vigorously pursue the administration’s Strategic Revenue Growth Initiatives to improve its fiscal position in the year.
According to her, “Several measures are being instituted under the Administration’s Strategic Revenue Growth Initiatives to improve government revenue and entrench fiscal prudence with emphasis on achieving value for money.”
Some of the specific actions under the initiatives, Mrs. Ahmed said would include, “Evaluation of the process and policy effectiveness of Fiscal Incentives, including the review of sectors eligible for Pioneer Tax Holiday Incentives under the Industrial Development Income Tax Relief Act; dimensioning the cost of tax waivers/concessions, and evaluating their policy effectiveness; setting annual ceilings on Tax Expenditures to better manage their impact on already constrained government revenues, and ensuring that MDAs appropriately account for and remit their internally-generated revenue.”
Besides, the minister said that her team would identify and plug existing revenue leakages to enhance tax compliance and reduce tax evasion, as well as, leverage technology and automation to eliminate fiscal drainers like subsidies.
Revenue streams
According to the minister, an oil revenue forecast of N 3.362 trillion to fund the 2022 budget would be higher by N1.350 trillion (67.18%) above the previous year’s target of N 2.011 trillion.
Similarly, FG share of Non-Oil Taxes would be expected to stand at N 2.132 trillion, this year, which is about 43.27 percent above last year’s budget of N1.488 trillion.
Ahmed said that N2.216 trillion would be earned as Independent Revenue, up from the 2021 budget of 1.061 , which recorded actual collection of N1.1 trillion, as at November, last year.
Other revenue streams, according to the minister were: Dividend from various investments in companies, N195. 716 billion; NLNG Dividend, N187.397 billion; Share from Share of Minerals & Mining, N2.915 billion; Share of Electronic Money Transfer Levy (formerly called Stamp Duty), 29.367 billion down from 500 billion in the preceding year; and Share of Oil Price Royalty, N96.943 billion.
The rest were: Revenue from Government Owned Enterprises, GOEs, N3.306 billion, up from N2.173 billion budgeted for 2021; Draw down from Special Levies Accounts, N 300.000 billion; Signature Bonus 280.855 billion; Domestic Recoveries, N 26.933 billion; Grants and Donor Agencies funding, N63.376 billion; and Education Tax, N305.998 billion.
Source: Vanguard
