New revenue formula coming!

Governors and other Nigerians who have been pushing for a new revenue allocation formula may have won a major victory.

Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) chair Elias Mbam yesterday said it will produce a new, equitable and just sharing formula early next year. 

Governors have been calling for a review of the formula which is largely skewed in favour of the Federal Government that, according to critics, has little to do, to the detriment of states and local governments.

The Federal Government takes 52 per cent from the federation account, leaving the 36 states to share 26.72 per cent. The 774 local governments get 20.60 per cent. 

The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) revenue panel headed by Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, has recommended a drastic reduction in the Federal Government's allocation. 

It proposes 35 per cent for the Federal Government, 42 per cent for the states and 23 per cent for the local governments.

The RMAFC also asked Akwa Ibom State to refund N10.91billion to Rivers State, following the recommendation of the committee set up to look into the Supreme Court judgment on disputed oil wells between the two states.

The RMAFC boss spoke in Abuja after receiving the report of the committee on the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Attorney General of Rivers State versus Attorney General of Akwa Ibom State and the Attorney General of the Federation.

Mbam described as desirable, a new revenue allocation formula for the country, saying his first action on assumption of office as RMAFC chair was to set up a committee on how to formulate a new revenue allocation for the three tiers of government.

He said the task of generating a new revenue formula involves looking into many documents, making consultations and going to the field to verify some of the indices.

Mbam said the monthly salary of a senator is N1.06 million. He said the remunerations due to federal legislators are in the public domain, having been published by the RMAFC. 

He said any senator who receives anything higher than this should be reported to the Clerk of the Senate, who is the chamber's accounting officer.

Receiving the report, the RMAFC boss said the plenary session of the commission would look into it passionately and implement it to the satisfaction of the stakeholders involved.

Committee chairman Alhaji Abdullahi Maiunguwa, who presented the report, said the committee set up on April 13, 2011 relied on documents, data and technical information provided by various agencies and institutions of governments related to the matter.

In the course of carrying out the assignment, he said the committee received data on the 86 oil wells attribution from the National Boundary Commission, in conjunction with the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation and their production data from the Department of Petroleum Resources.

He said the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation provided all the documents related to the 13 per cent derivation Fund during the period under consideration by the committee while the CBN provided information on interest rate to be applied for the purpose of the assignment.

Maiunguwa said the computation of the amount due to Rivers State covered April 2009 to April 2011, stressing that the committee found out that Akwa Ibom State would refund N10.910billion to River State.

This amount, according to him, is exclusive of the prevailing commercial interest to be charged as the committee is still awaiting the rate to be charged from the CBN.

Source:
The Nation