Uche Usim, Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed all revenue-generating agencies to up their game as those who meet agreed targets will be rewarded, while those who do not will face severe consequences.

President Buhari, who stated this unequivocally in his Independence Day broadcast on Tuesday such an approach was necessary to achieve set goals set by his administration.

Major revenue-generating agencies concerned include the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria Customs Service, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigeria Ports Authority, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency and others.

The FIRS was recently queried by the presidency over discrepancies in its remittances.

The President said: “Our commitment to achieving macroeconomic stability and economic diversification has been underscored by the merger of the Ministry of Finance with the Ministry of Budget and National Planning,” he said.

“This combined Ministry has the important mandate to enhance the management of domestic and global fiscal risks; coordinate policies with the trade and monetary authorities; raise and deploy revenues to fund budgeted expenditure, and integrate annual budgets and medium-term fiscal strategies.

“With this, our revenue-generating and reporting agencies will come under much greater scrutiny, going forward, as the new performance management framework will reward exceptional revenue performance, while severe consequences will attend failures to achieve agreed revenue targets.”

In his efforts to address infrastructural rot in the country, the President ordered the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to release N600 billion for capital expenditure within the next three months.

He added: “Implementation of the 2019 Capital Budget, which was only approved in June 2019, will be accelerated to ensure that critical priority projects are completed or substantially addressed.

“The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning have been directed to release N600 billion for Capital Expenditure in the next 3 months.

“I recently constituted an Economic Advisory Council to advise me on inclusive and sustainable macroeconomic, fiscal and monetary policies. This independent body will work with relevant Cabinet members and the heads of key monetary, fiscal and trade agencies to ensure we remain on track as we strive for collective prosperity.”

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Buhari assured that policy adjustments that could cause pain to the citizenry will be moderated and palliatives administered.

Meanwhile, funding gap for capital projects stands at N2.03 trillion in four years (2015-2018).

The Federal Government released the sum of N5.41 trillion to its Ministries, Departments and Agencies for the implementation of capital projects.

The amount, which was released by the Ministry of Finance to cover various capital projects as approved in the national budget of each of the four years, exclude the trillions of naira spent on recurrent expenditure.

N722.2 billion was allocated for capital projects in the 2015 fiscal period from the total budget of N4.49 trillion for that year.

Out of the N722.2 billion, the sum of N557 billion was actually released for capital projects implementation leaving a funding shortfall of N165.2 billion.

In the 2016 budget, the sum of N1.58tn was allocated for capital projects out of the total annual budget of N6.06 trillion.

From the N1.58 trillion, the sum of N1.21 trillion was released for capital projects execution, leaving a funding shortfall of N368 billion.

For the 2017 fiscal period, the sum of N2.36 trillion was allocated for capital projects out of the total annual budget of N7.44 trillion.

From the N2.36 trillion allocated for capital project in that year, N1.56 trillion was released leaving a funding gap of about N800 billion.

For the 2018 budget, further analysis showed that the sum of N2.87 trillion was budgeted for capital projects out of which N2.07 trillion had been released as at May 14.