- Govt Agencies Remitted N687.82bn Operating Surplus in Nine Years
Agencies of the Federal Government have remitted a total of N687.82bn to the Consolidated Revenue Fund in nine years, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission has said in a report.
It stated in the report obtained by our correspondent on Monday that the amount was remitted as operating surplus between 2007 and 2015.
The FRC Act 2007 requires listed government agencies to remit 80 per cent of their annual operating surpluses to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The operating surplus as conceptualised by the FRA 2007 is made up of revenues accruing to government agencies above what it is approved to spend at the beginning of the budget year.
Among the 30 agencies listed as qualifying to remit operating surpluses, the Central Bank of Nigeria made the highest return of N497.63bn in a period of eight years but the organisation did not remit any surplus in 2015.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation did not remit any surplus within the nine-year period.
Other organisations that made zero return to the Consolidated Revenue Fund are the Bureau of Public Enterprises, the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund, the National Environmental Standards Regulatory Agency, the Nigeria Custom Service, and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.
The Security and Exchange Commission made only one remittance of N1.93bn in 2009; the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation also made only one remittance of N51.73m in 2013.
Similarly, the Nigerian Ports Authority made only one remittance of N6.16bn in 2013; just as the National Business and Technical Examination Board made one remittance of N14.94m in 2013.
Apart from the CBN, other agencies that remitted comparatively high amount of money included the Nigerian Insurance Deposit Corporation, N68.05bn; the National Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, N37.16bn; the Nigerian Communications Commission, N32.35bn; and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, N24.24bn.
The report said, “In 2015, the commission continued its monitoring of the remittance of the operating surplus of the scheduled corporations. A corporation’s annual report from which the operating surplus/deficit is determined is prepared in the year succeeding the one being reported on.
“It is instructive that the sum received by the Federal Government as its share of operating surplus from these corporations recorded year-on-year increases from 2007 to 2012.
“It is not in doubt that this improvement in returns to the Federal Government was engendered by the interventions of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission.”
