Senator Austin Akobundu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed concerns atabout a fresh borrowing plan of the Federal Government and strongly advised against such a move. Rather, he advocated for the retooling of federal government revenue generation agencies for improved revenue.
The Senator representing Abia Central at the National Assembly stated this yesterday during an interactive forum of senators with heads orevenue-generatingng agencies in Abuja.
After revenue agencies like Customs, FIRSand , NNPCL reported during the interactive session that they all surpassed their revenue targets for the 2024 fiscal year, Akobundu wondered whthe y government has decided to go borrowing again despite the positive development.
Comptroller General of Custos, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi reported that the organisation had a revenue target of N5.09trn for 2024 but that the target has been surpassed aofamid-Novemberer this year. The FIRS Chairman, Zaccheus Adedeji, reported that the Service had a revenue target of N19.4trn but has already surpassed it by 15%. On his part, the Group Managing Director of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, reported that the revenue target of the Company was N12.3trn but that it has already raked in N13.1trn for the 2024 fiscal year.
Based on this development, Senator Akobundu wondered whthe y government was still insistent on borrowing.
“During the debate on the general principles of the 2024 budget, I was ve,ry very critical abouborrowingng, and I recommended the rejigging of all threvenue-generatingng agencies. And gladly and thankfully, they have surpassed their targets. So, the question is, why do we still borrow?”
Recall that in a similar development during the debate over the 2024 Appropriation Bill last year, Senator Akobundu raised concerns about the federal government’s appetite for borrowing despitthe e abilities of threvenue-generatingng agencies to meet and even surpass their targets. He suggested ways of enhancing the revenue capabilities of the agencies for maximum output.
At that time, he had said, “We can fund this budget without borrowing through reinvigorating our strategy on internally generated revenue by ensuring that key enablers and drivers of revenue generation are retooled. For example, Customs & Excise Duties: in this matter, I think that enhanced technology and automation must be deployed.”
Recall that the federal government sent a request to the Senate for it to approve its plan to borrow $2.2bn which is approximately N1.7trn.
