As government revenue continues to shrink on dwindling oil prices, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission is designing a new template for calculating operating surplus of revenue generating agencies so as to ensure prompt remittance by them.
The template will be adopted early next year and is expected to help enthrone an era of balanced budget for the country.
Victor Muruako, acting chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, said on Tuesday that this is one of the commission’s responses to the practice of some agencies of government who indulge in creative accounting in order to obviate the need to pay their exact operating surplus.
Muruako said adhering to fiscal discipline had become critical in the country, especially with dwindling national revenue on account of oil price crash as he assured that the commission will continue to monitor internally generated revenue in line with its mandate.
The commission is also to collaborate with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to ensure increased revenue in-flow to the Federal Government.
The two organisations have agreed to set up a committee to work out modalities to ensure increased revenue for the Federal Government in the face of sliding oil price at the international market.
The agreement was reached at the end of a meeting held between the management of the two bodies led by their respective chief executives held at the headquarters of the Federal Inland Revenue Service on Tuesday.
Speaking at the meeting, Muruako said only the strict implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 can guarantee full implementation of the annual budget.
He said it was high time Nigeria took a cue from countries like Singapore, India and Brazil which have done away with budget deficit through strict adherence to fiscal discipline.
Muruako appealed to FIRS, as the second largest revenue earner of the Federal Government, to assist the commission in pursuit of its mandate.
Earlier at the meeting, Kabir Mashi, acting chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, confirmed that a number of government agencies deduct withholding taxes, VAT on contract and PAYE from employees but do not remit them to FIRS.
He, therefore, said that his organisation will collaborate with FRC to ensure prompt remittances of these taxes by such agencies.
Mashi also said that FIRS is working to ensure that tax payers get value for tax remittance, adding that compliance with tax payment by citizens was high in Lagos because tax payers see value for their money.
He said it was important for the two government agencies to collaborate to ensure increased revenue for the government particularly in these difficult times.
He added that on its part, the FIRS has already embarked on an aggressive tax drive in response to the dire situation, adding that more still needed to be done.
