The Accountant-General expressed hope that the increase recorded in non-oil revenue will stay steady.
The Account General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, has said the non-oil revenue has greatly improved in the past few months.
The Accountant-General asserted on Tuesday, at the inaugural meeting of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance with Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) under the purview of the committee.
According to Madein, “The non-oil revenue has tremendously improved in the last few months, which has been helping in the kind of inflows that comes to the federation account and we are also expecting them to do more and better likewise all other agencies.”
Madein also said that her office would begin automation of its processes by December this year as she responded to queries on reasons why the office was still carrying out its operations manually.
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She explained that “Improving the revenue reconciliation is ongoing and it used to be manual, which makes it very tedious. We are working on having access to the systems. We are even having a series of systems being deployed, revenue monitoring information system and also the reconciliation system. They are working on them. We will expedite action to ensure those systems become operational before the end of the year. So that the reconciliation would be much easier than it used to be.”
On revenue leakages due to waivers and tax incentives among others, she said her office has no power over that.
“All these are being posted at the Budget Office. They hardly refer to the Office of the Accountant General. We do not even get involved in the process. It is when they make payment and the agency presents its side by side to explain how they come about the revenue that we would see whatever waivers have been granted. So that leaves us with no other option than to accept the figures.”
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the Committee, Rep. James Faleke (APC, Lagos), expressed the House’s willingness to address the revenue and fiscal aspects of the various Ministries Departments, and Agencies through effective oversight and legislation on the fiscal policies that will provide effective revenue generation and economic development.
“Over the past four years, the House Committee on Finance has been at the center of this and we shall continue to do the same in our bid to shore up the revenue fortune of the nation,” he said.
