The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Budget office

  • Common tariff to benefit West African economy- Official

    Common tariff to benefit West African economy- Official

    The Director-General, Budget Office, Mr. Ben Akabueze, said on Wednesday that the implementation of the Common External Tariff (CET) would benefit the West African economy and improve welfare of its citizens.

    He made the remarks at the Validation Meeting on the Draft Report on the Situation and Gap Analysis of ECOWAS Common External Tariff Implementation in Nigeria.

    Akabueze said the gap analysis was timely and would assist the country to identify areas of success and weakness with a view to re-strategizing for optimum performance.

    The director-general appealed to the duo to further assist the country to undertake the study on the impact of fiscal incentives employed in support of sectoral policies.

    Akabueze said the policies included waivers, concessions, exemptions and other tariff measures.

    He also called for proposed measures for supporting local production that were more transparent and which would facilitate harmonisation at the ECOWAS regional level.

    “I humbly request GIZ to equally assist other ECOWAS Member States that have started implementing the CET to strengthen their trade support institutions.

    “This will enhance the necessary policies for successful regional trade integration,’’ he said.

    Represented by Mr. Ayo Fadola, Director of Fiscal Policy, Akabueze also commended the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Government through the GIZ, for supporting the realisation of the policy in Nigeria.

    Mr Juan Casla, Head of Section, Economic Cooperation and Energy, EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, said the EU supported Nigeria’s CET by strengthening Nigeria’s trade support institutions project.

    Casla said that ECOWAS was a growing region of more than 300 million mostly young people which was open for business and urged investors and traders to take advantage of the fact.

    “All this is very good on paper but obviously the reality is much more complicated.

    “We know that implementation of such a complex scheme; a complex tariff implies the adoption of legal disposition at a country’s levels in all the different countries.

    “It also implies many technical measures in terms of organisation of customs procedures at the borders, adoption of common customs and the likes.

    “These things are complex process and that is why it is very important to monitor what is happening and to report on the status of implementation of all these complex measures.

    “The fact that we are doing this in Nigeria is very important because whatever works in Nigeria would be easily replicated to other countries in the ECOWAS region.

    “We hope the analysis, measures and monitoring system that would be proposed would be submitted soon, so that it can speed up the implementation of CET in Nigeria and in ECOWAS.

    Mr Frieder Mecklenburg, International Adviser, Trade Facilitation, Trade Policy and Facilitation Unit , GIZ, said changes in the country’s institutional and regulatory legal level would help surpass CET implementation challenges.

    “To bring all these into harmony in a very short implementation period of five years is a major challenge because it requires the involvement of various ministries and agencies.

    “However, Nigeria is best positioned in the region; they are in the lead and have moved far ahead; awareness is very high and I am optimistic that they will achieve implementation,’’ Mecklenburg said.

  • 2015 budget probe: Reps blast perm sec, AGF, Budget Office for presenting vague documents

    2015 budget probe: Reps blast perm sec, AGF, Budget Office for presenting vague documents

    The House of Representatives has expressed reservations over the capacity of the Ministry of Finance to effectively drive the Nigerian economy.

    The position of the lawmakers was informed by the discrepancies discovered in documents presented to an ad hoc committee of the House investigating the implementation of the capital component of this year’s budget.

    The public hearing that was postponed twice due to the non-appearance of the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs Anastasia Daniel-Nwaobia however got underway yesterday despite her absence.

    She was said to be on the entourage of President Muhammadu Buhari to France.

    Agencies at the hearing  included the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Budget Office of the Federation, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the Fiscal Responsibility Commission  (FRC) and National Planning Commission (NPC) among others.

    Trouble began after the presentation of the submission  of Ministry of Finance by the representative of the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Aliyu Gusau who is the Director-General, Budget Office.

    He said the document was too ‘sketchy’ to be of any value to the committee in its findings.

    The Permanent Secretary,  in her presentation  said N3.45trillion was budgeted for this year, adding that out of this sum, capital appropriation was N5579billion.

    “Of the amount, N194.492billion has been released as at September 15th representing 34.89 per cent of total releases.

    “Of the N375.62billion budgeted for Statutory tranfer, N187billion, has been released as at quarter two and N250.41billion as at August 2015.

    “Of N231.41billion pensions budget, N149.92billion has been released as a at end of August 2015.

    “Public debt to GDP ratio as at 2013 was 10.82 per cent, and N882.122billion appropriated for both domestic and external borrowing has been fully raised to finance the 2015 budget.

    “External debt as at June 30th 2015 stood at $7.74billion and $3.42billion for states and the FCT; bringing it to the total amount to $10.31billion while Federal Government’s internal debt stood at $8.396billion”.

    Reacting to the presentation, the Committee said the document was lacking in depth, while particular concern was raised over figures in the submission of some  invited  agencies that were contradictory thereby casting doubt about the integrity of the various  presentations.

    Chairman of the ad hoc committee, Ahman Pategi said the sketchy nature of the presentation failed to give the true position of the implementation of the 2015 capital budget.

    He noted that the presentation was silent on revenue accruals from oil while there was a need to know  shortfall from January to August.

    Besides, he cited the shortfall recorded in non-oil revenue as contained in the document but   was short on explanations on  month-by month details.

    He also said  the presenation was vague on the nation’s debt profile as it was silent on the position of each sectors of the economy and how the governemnt planned to liquidate it.

    The chairman was also concerned about the inadequate presentation of the most of the agencies that spanned January to June this year rather than from January to August this year.

    “My own of view of the presentation is that it is very sketchy and does not give a holistic view for full understanding of what the 2015 budget implementation is all about.

    “We had expected you to provide vivid insights into the regime of import duty waiver using explanatory notes to describe how what was done and why”, he said.

  • Buhari appoints new heads for FIRS, Budget Office

    Buhari appoints new heads for FIRS, Budget Office

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday appointed Dr. William Babatunde Fowler as the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

    This was announced in a statement issued by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Femi Adesina.

    Fowler will serve as Acting Executive Chairman of FIRS until his appointment is confirmed by the Senate.

    Before his appointment, Dr. Fowler was the Chief Executive Officer/Executive Chairman of the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue from 2005 to 2014.

    The statement reads: “He had his higher education in the United States where he obtained a Bachelor degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin and a Master of Business Administration degree from the California State University.

    “Before joining the service of the Lagos State Government, Dr. Fowler worked in the banking sector for about 20 years with long stints at Credit Lyonnais Nigeria Limited and Chartered Bank.

    “Under his leadership, the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue reportedly achieved a sharp increase in internally generated revenue from an average of N3.6. billion per month in January 2006, to an average of about N20.5 billion per month in 2013.

    “Fowler, who holds an Honorary Doctorate Degree of the Irish International University, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria and the Business Management Association of the United Kingdom.”

    President Buhari has also appointed Mr. Aliyu Yahaya Gusau as Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation.

    Gusau’s appointment, the statement said, takes effect from August 18 and is for a term of four years, renewable for another four years, unless he attains the retirement age of 60 years or completes 35 years of pensionable service.

  • Indorama, Chevron, others get N25.8b import duty waivers

    The Federal Government of Nigeria granted N25.81 billion in waivers and exemptions to Indorama Eleme Petro Chemicals Limited, United States (U.S.) oil major, Chevron and other organisations between January and May this year.

    Other beneficiaries of the largesse  included government agencies, non-profit institutions and private businesses.

    A report by the Budget Office of the Federation showed that organisations operating in agriculture, oil and gas, power and education sectors were the major beneficiaries.

    In all, a total of 64 different organisations were granted waivers with several of them claiming supply of machinery, equipment and spare parts, plants, equipment and core drilling rigs.

    Indorama Eleme Fertiliser and Chemicals Limited was the highest beneficiary of the waivers with N10.5 billion. A breakdown of the amount showed that the sum of N6.96 billion was waived for Indorama for the importation of machinery, equipment and spare parts, while the balance of N3.54 billion was waived on fertiliser equipment, catalysts and chemical pile.

    Chevron Nigeria Limited was the second highest beneficiary, with N4.87 billion waived for the importation of machinery, equipment and pipelines; followed by Galaxy Backbone, with N2.49 billion for tnformation and communications technology equipment.

    Similarly, United Cement Company of Nigeria and NIPCO Plc also got waivers of N1.91 billion and N1.02 billion for the importation of machinery, equipment and spare parts.

    Other major beneficiaries are the Borno State government which got N984.79 million waived for agricultural machineries; the Federal Capital Territory Administration/Globe Motors for 290 units of motor vehicles used at the recently held World Economic Forum; and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without borders), N568 million for medical supplies.

  • Budget deficit ‘falls to 1.85% of GDP’

    Budget deficit ‘falls to 1.85% of GDP’

    Nigeria’s budget deficit is set to fall to 1.85 percent of gross domestic product in 2013, the director general of the budget office said on Thursday.

    President Goodluck Jonathan approved a 4.99 trillion naira budget last month for 2013, after it was passed by the National Assembly, ending two months of disputes over the spending plans.

    “There’s has been a trending downwards of the fiscal deficit,” Reuters quoted Budget Office Director- General, Bright Okogwu, as saying to journalists in Abuja.

    “We have a deficit of about 1.85 percent of GDP. I think this is very good going.”

    Nigeria’s revenues from oil production usually exceed spending and the surplus is deposited into the Excess Crude Account (ECA), which means the deficit is to some extent artificial – it can usually be financed from the country’s own savings.

    But the balance in the ECA has been steadily increasing over the past year which, combined with a lower nominal deficit, suggests Nigeria is saving more of its oil windfall – a key objective of finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

    That objective put her in conflict with the national assembly, whose members wanted to free up more spending for projects and their constituencies.