*Says 14 whistleblowers will be paid N439.276 million in May
*Cancelling plenary protesting Dino Melaye’s arrest part of reason for delay – Source
*MURIC once warned to stop asking MDAs for bribes
“Don’t be deceived by anything they tell you. They want to show President Buhari that they have a way they can flog him and that is why they have frustrated virtually everything that he has done to make Nigeria better. Imagine that Senators who take N13.5 million, albeit illegally, on monthly basis could still cancel that legislative business for which they take the bogus pay for and they said they were doing so in protest against the Nigeria Police’s arrest of Dino Melaye, who is undergoing trial for criminal offences bothering on gunrunning, attempted suicide, escape from lawful custody and more! They know the adverse effects their delay of this budget will have in the same Nigerians that voted them to the National Assembly but they can sacrifice the good life of their people to achieve their own political ambitions. This is what the crop of Senators and Reps members we have currently has done,” a respondent who spoke under condition of anonymity said.
The long time it is taking the National Assembly to finish work on and pass this year’s national budget will have economic implications for the Nigerian economy.
The minister of finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, who made this assertion at a news conference Friday in Abuja, said the delay in passing the 2018 budget would cause some adjustments in implementation which would have some impact on the nation.
Adeosun, who said the impact was due to changes in the market and in the cost (value) of money, however, assured that the federal government would try to mitigate the effects of the delay.
Adeosun said: “Honestly, we may need to realign some of the priorities now because what we thought we would be doing in January is now different from what we are going to do.
“So, we are going to have to look very closely to see where we would realign and re-prioritise, but we will carry on because most of the capital projects are multi-year projects, so we will just continue.
“We are going to try and mitigate that impact as much as possible and focus on completing projects,” she said, adding that the fact that the 2017 budget cycle began late in the year had helped a great deal.
“What has helped us is the fact that the budget was passed late last year, and what we did was (that) we just carried on with those projects. We will close this year’s budget with capital expenses in excess of N1.5 trillion, which is higher than last year.
“Many of these projects are multi-year projects, so, hopefully, there will not be too much disruptions.’’
Adeosun noted that the financial systems were not closed on December 31, 2017 in order to allow for projects implementation to continue.
She, however, expressed optimism that the 2018 budget would be passed soon.
It will be recalled that the National Assembly, which last week promised to passed the 2018 appropriation bill, failed in its promise as it again set coming week for it.
The DEFENDER findings revealed that the two chambers of the federal legislature cancelling their legitimate legislative businesses to protest against the Nigerian Police arrest of Senator Dino Melaye, who is on trial, for criminal offences of gun running, attempting to commit suicide and others.
The investigations further revealed that most of the reasons responsible for the delay in passage of this year’s budget, which President Buhari submitted earlier than usual in November last year, is basically on individual interests of the lawmakers whose efforts at struggling powers with the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Executive Council (FEC) are not hidden.
A respondent who spoke under condition of anonymity said, “Don’t be deceived by anything they tell you. They want to show President Buhari that they have a way they can flog him and that is why they have frustrated virtually everything that he has done to make Nigeria better. Imagine that Senators who take N13.5 million, albeit illegally, on monthly basis could still cancel that legislative business for which they take the bogus pay for and they said they were doing so in protest against the Nigeria Police’s arrest of Dino Melaye, who is undergoing trial for criminal offences bothering on gunrunning, attempted suicide, escape from lawful custody and more! They know the adverse effects their delay of this budget will have in the same Nigerians that voted them to the National Assembly but they can sacrifice the good life of their people to achieve their own political ambitions. This is what the crop of Senators and Reps members we have currently has done.
“I can tell you one thing and I want you to go and write it down in your diary; they will be the ones to regret this because Buhari that we know is not the one pushing us through the suffering but the National Assembly. Just look at how they have projected themselves even among some so-called rights lawyers and journalists. Those supposed defenders of humanity and the State are now behaving like they are on the payroll of the National Assembly actors as they are making us realise that reps members and senators can never go wrong but that only the executive members can always be at fault. We are waiting for them and even before they get to that point, they will fail. That is sure,” he said.
Although the reason being adduced by NASS sources is that the 2018 appropriation bill is yet to be passed due to several reasons, including chief executives of some ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) refusing to come forward to defend the budget estimates contained in their proposals before the lawmakers.
This reason was dismissed by Director of Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Prof. Ishaq Akintola, who said in a statement on behalf of the group that the lawmakers only adduced the reason of MDAs heads not coming forward to defend to cover up themselves.
MURIC had warned the lawmakers to stop asking for bribes from the MDAs to pass their budgets and that it was the refusal to respond to their asking for bribes that the MDAs did not turn out.
However, both chambers of the National Assembly have indicated their readiness to pass the appropriation bill into law in a short while.
On tax, Adeosun said the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and other tax authorities were doing a lot on payment enforcement. She remarked that the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) had helped in increasing the number of taxpayers captured in the tax base of the nation.
The minister revealed that the federal government had recovered N13.8 billion from taxes through whistleblowers who gave useful tips about companies that deliberately underpaid taxes.
“That is different for us because most of the whistle blowing in the past have been about stolen money, but with the extension of VAIDS and our general narrative about tax, we are getting far more tips on tax evasion,’’ she said. She added that the 14 whistleblowers would be paid N439, 276 million in May.
According to her, cases are being prepared for the prosecution of companies and individuals who refused to use the VAIDS window to remit their taxes once it closes on June 30.
Adeosun said that the federal government also sent out teams to visit some of its foreign missions to verify assets, in which more than 108 landed properties were identified in various countries.
She said the properties do not necessarily belong to some of its foreign missions but that some of its agencies had some unrecorded properties abroad.
“Some have been abandoned and some are even in the process of being sold off but we have been able to stop them and we are going to revise procedures in that regard,’’ she said.
Speaking on the recent stalemate in revenue generation between the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the minister said it showed the level of scrutiny by all parties concerned to ensure that the nation got the right revenue figures.
Adeosun stressed that the federal government would not allow revenue leakages anymore, adding that it was working to ensure that those leakages were blocked.
“We should not be too alarmed when there is a stalemate because it is all in the public interest to make sure that the monies that we are expecting into the federation account come in and we account for them properly,’’ she said.
On the issue of Nigeria’s debt profile, Adeosun said there was no cause for alarm as the nation’s debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio was 20 per cent and one of the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Where we do have a challenge is debt service to revenue which is because the interest cost was quite high and this is a function of two things; one is that most of the debt was short term so you are paying interest and compounding it.
“However, we have been refinancing treasury bills in the domestic market and replacing them with long term debt in the international market and that is reducing our cost of borrowing.
“This time last year, Nigerian government was borrowing at an average cost of about 18 per cent but now it is 13 per cent. So we are working very hard on the debt service cost and, of course, revenue,’’ she said.
The minister asserted that, presently, borrowings are tied to capital projects which would still be useful for many years to come.
“So, there is no cause for alarm as far as Nigeria is concerned. It is a well managed, very conservative debt strategy and we continue to be very focused on concessional borrowing,’’ she said.
