The Senate has mandated its Committee on Finance to further review its recommendation that the chamber approve the sum of N143, 722, 430, 526 for the Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS) Budget for 2016 after certain gaps were noted in its report on Thursday 10th November, 2016.
According to the Committee Chair, Sen. John Enoh, (PDP:Cross River), the Budget proposed the sum of N64, 491, 130, 526 as personnel cost; N46, 363,000,000 as overhead cost and N32, 868, 300,000 for Capital. Some of the highlights in the report include a N25 billion difference in personnel costs and an increase in overhead costs by N13 billion in a comparison with its 2015 budget. The personnel and overhead costs in the 2015 budget were N49, 131,147,517(Forty Nine Billion, One Hundred and Thirty One Million, One Hundred and Forty Seven Thousand, Five Hundred and Seventeen Naira) and N38, 917,482,063 (Thirty Eight Billion, Nine Hundred and Seventeen Naira, Four Hundred and Eighty Two Thousand Sixty Three Naira) respectively.
The Committee Chair explained that the total personnel costs were for salaries, wages, allowances, performance bonuses and social contributions and the recruitment of 8,000 new staff. He also emphasized that the overhead costs were vital in driving FIRS core objective of tax generation and that provisions in its 2016 budget emphasize the availability of office materials, training, consulting and professional services and publicity. The report also revealed that FIRS generated the sum of N49, 001,848 (Forty-Nine Million and One Thousand, Eight Hundred and Forty-Eight Naira) in 2015 and is projected to collect tax revenues to the tune of N4.082 trillion (Four Trillion and Eighty-Two Billion Naira) in 2016.
Speaking on the report, Sen. Albert Bassey Akpan (PDP:Akwa Ibom) expressed concerns over the high discrepancy in the personnel and overhead costs between 2015 and 2016. Sen. Barau Jibril (APC:Kano) also questioned why FIRS did not meet its projected revenue target of N4.36 Trillion in 2015.In addition, Sen. Mohammed Hassan (PDP:Yobe) stressed the importance of having a proper description of items under capital projects and queried why full details of items listed under capital items were ambiguous in the report. Sen. Bala Ibn N’allah’s (APC:Kebbi) contributions also highlighted the importance of early budget submission for Ministries, Department and Agencies so that the National Assembly could carry out proper oversight.
Furthermore, Senate President, Bukola Saraki (APC:Kwara) questioned why the Committee recommended the exact proposal of the budget and then referred the Budget back to the Committee for review. The Committee has also been called to pay particular attention to the examination of items listed as capital projects and verify the accuracy of figures presented in the budget.
President Mohammed Buhari had sent the budget of the FIRS for Senate’s consideration and approval since the 21st of July 2016.
