Thursday, January 08, 2015

Nigeria Records N330bn Shortfall in Non-oil Revenue
Federal Republic of Nigeria Finance Minister Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala warns that revenue is decreasing fast.
by UDO ONYEKA on Jan 9, 2015
Nigerian National Mirror

Efforts by the Federal Government to use the non-oil sector to boost revenue accruals for sustainable economic development appear to have fallen short of target with revenues from the sector falling below projections for 2014.

Available statistics sourced by National Mirror from the Budget Office indicated that in the first half of the year, gross non-oil receipts amounted to N1. 09trn indicating a shortfall of N329.79 billion or 23.25 per cent below the half year estimate of N1.41trn.

According to the Budget Office, receipts on all the non-oil revenue items were below respective estimates.

For instance, N407.95 billion was recorded from Value Added Tax collections; Company Income Tax amounted to N422.63 billion, while Customs & Excise Duties was N257.91billion translating into projected revenue shortfall of N14.78 billion or 3.5 per cent, N70.5 billion or 14.3 per cent and N133.28 billion or 34.07 per cent respectively when compared with projections for the half year of 2014.

Budget Office records also showed that in the second quarter of 2014, actual gross non-oil revenue of N574.94 billion was received, depicting a shortfall of N134.2 billion or 18.92 per cent below the quarterly estimate of N709.14 billion.

A breakdown of the non-oil revenue items show that all the items fell short of their quarterly projected estimates.

Value Added Tax of N194.15 billion, Company Income Tax of N244.51 billion and Customs & Excise Duties of N136.28 billion were below their quarterly estimates of N211.36 billion, N246.56billion and N195.60billion by N17.22 billion representing 8.14 per cent, N2.05 billion representing 0.83 per cent and N59.31 billion representing 30.32 per cent respectively.

When compared to their respective first quarter performances, Company Income Tax and Customs & Excise Duties however grew by N66.4 billion or 37.28 per cent and N14.65 billion or 12.04 per cent respectively, while Value Added Tax fell by N19.66 billion or 9.19 per cent.

According to the Budget Office the low performance of all the non-oil revenue items in the second quarter of 2014 could be attributed to the slow pace of economic activities during the period and the inability of both the revenue generating and collecting agencies to collect and remit these revenues on time, adding that the trend was expected to improve this year.

It would be recalled that in the last couple of years, government had undertaken a number of measures aimed at improving non-oil revenue collections and payments to the treasury.

The Budget Office said the outcome of these actions as well as the office’s regular dialogue with the revenue agencies had resulted in the continued increase in targets and actual revenues realised from the non-oil sector.

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