Finance Bill: Minister, FIRS, Others Fault RMAFC Over Revenue Monitoring

War of words played out in the National Assembly, on Tuesday, between the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Ellias Mbam, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, and the Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service ( FIRS), Dr Muhammad Nami.

The occasion was the public hearing on the 2022 Finance Bill organised by the Senate Committee on Finance.

At the core of the verbal exchange was the overlap of functions between the RMAFC and the FIRS in the proposed Bill.

The Chairman of RMAFC has faulted provisions of Section 68(2) of the proposed bill which he said sought to cede the Commission statutory function to the FIRS by transferring to the latter exclusive power of revenue collection , monitoring and enforcement.

Section 68(2) states that FIRS is the primary agency in charge of administration , assessment , collection , accounting and enforcement of taxes.

The RMAFC boss said he has no objection to FIRS being the primary agency responsible for assessment , collection and accounting but expressed strong reservation about its exclusive power of enforcement.

He said: “This word ( enforcement) , is infringing on the monitoring mandate of RMAFC in the area of enforcement and compliance .

“RMAFC shall not wait for FIRS as a primary agency to carry out enforcement of lost or unremitted government revenue before performing its monitoring functions or seek approval of the Minister of Finance before carrying out its constitutional mandate of enforcement.

“The exclusivity clause of enforcement to FIRS should not be granted and as such, be expunged.”

The FIRS boss and the Finance Minister, however, individually dismissed the fears raised by the RMAFC Chairman as misplaced. In his presentation, Dr Nami argued that his agency mandate to monitor revenue is not exclusive as other relevant agencies: the Budget Office, Office of Accountant General of the Federation , Ministry of Finance , Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) etc, have concurrent mandate to monitor revenue.

“What is clear and exclusive is that FIRS possesses the mandate to access , collect and account for taxes accruing into the federation account.

“Monitoring revenues is not the same as collecting and enforcing them in form of taxes.”

The Finance Minister spoke in similar vein as she submitted that RMAFC statutory mandate is to monitor revenue accruing into the Federation Account and not the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF)

Zainab further argued that in the Proposed bill, the FIRS is empowered to sanction non – compliant banks that fail to deliver quarterly returns, investigate tax evasions and other related crimes, amongst other infractions.

Earlier in his opening remarks , Senator representing Lagos West and Chairman of the Committee, Senator Olamilekan Adeola said the 2021 Finance has a total of 12 existing Acts for amendments.

He listed the Acts slated for amendments to include, Capital Gains Tax Act, Companies Income Tax Act, Customs, Exercise Tariff, etc (Consolation) Act, Federal Revenue Service Establishment Act, Personal Income Tax and Stamp Duties Act.

Others are Value Added Tax Act, Insurance Act, Nigerian Police Trust Fund (Establishment) Act, National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure Act, Finance (Control and Management) Act and Fiscal Responsibility Act.