Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Dr Zacch Adedeji, has defended the Federal Government’s loan request, saying it is a component of the Appropriation Act approved by the National Assembly.
Adedeji said this on Monday in Abuja at an interactive session on 2025-2027 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) for revenue generating agencies.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the interactive session was organised by the National Assembly Joint Committees on Finance, National Planning and Economic Affairs.
NAN also reports that Adedeji was responding to a question by Sen. Adamu Aliero (PDP-Kebbi) on what the federal government was doing with the excess revenue generated by the various agencies in view of its unending requests for foreign loan approvals.
Adedeji said that the loans sought for by the executive were already part of the appropriation act.
“Borrowing is part of what had been approved by the national assembly for the federal government, meaning that the executive borrows based on the approval of the legislature.
“The fact that we meet revenue targets and even surpassed them as revenue generating agencies does not mean that the borrowing component of the appropriation law passed by the national assembly should not be activated,” he said.
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Atiku Bagudu, also said that the borrowing plans contained in the N35.5 trillion 2024 budget were primarily meant to fund the N9.7 trillion deficit.
“Despite the revenue targets surpassed by some of the revenue-generating agencies, government still needs to borrow for proper funding of the budget, particularly in the areas of deficit and productivity for the poorest and the most vulnerable.
“We have a long term development plan agenda 2050 aiming at GDP per capital of 33,000 dollars,” he said.
Also speaking, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, said borrowing was still needed for proper funding of the budget in spite of increased revenue generation by some agencies.
Edun expressed optimism about the country’s economic future, citing a strategic budget for 2025.
According to him, Nigeria has changed fundamentally under President Bola Tinubu’s leadership, as he took over during difficult economic times and made key decisions to reset the economy.
Edun also emphasised the importance of market pricing of petroleum products and foreign exchange, which, he said , had sent right signals to investors.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the revenue-generating agencies had, earlier in their separate presentations on the 2024 budget performance and revenue projections for the N49.7 trillion 2025 budget, reported excess revenue target for the 2024 fiscal year.
The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Mr Bashir Adeniyi, said as at Sept, 30, the service had generated N5.352 trillion revenue, which was above N5.09 trillion targetted for the current fiscal year.
He said that N6.3 trillion was projected as revenue for 2025, adding that 10 per cent increase of the 2025 target would be the revenue target for the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr Mele Kyari, said that the company had exceeded the N12.3 trillion revenue projected for 2024, having generated N13.1 trillion.
” For the 2025 fiscal year, N23.7 trillion is projected by NNPCL to be remitted into the federation account,” he said.
The FIRS Chairman, in his presentation, said organisation had also surpassed the targetted revenues across the various tax components.
“Company Income Tax of N4 trillion was targetted but N5.7 trillion has been realised now.
“On Education Tax, N70 billion was targetted, while a total of N1.5 trillion has been realised.
“In all, out of the N19.4 trillion targetted for the 2024 fiscal year, N18.5 trillion has been attained as at the end of September, which clearly shows that the target will be far exceeded by the end of the year,” Adedeji said.
However, Chairman of the Joint Committee, Sen. Sani Musa (APC-Niger), spoke about the inability of Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to clarify its revenue performance.
Musa, who was particular about the public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement between NIS and a private firm on passport productions, urged the organisation to re-appear before the committee. (NAN)
