The presidency has revised the major elements in the revenue framework in the proposed 2012 budget, though the budget proposal is yet to be officially forwarded to the National Assembly for consideration.
The director, Budget Office, Dr. Bright Okogu, disclosed this yesterday at an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Finance.
Also the comptroller-general of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde, alleged undue influence from some quarters on the operations of the service.
Okogu told the senators that the oil benchmark for year 2012, which was put at $75 per barrel in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) forwarded by President Goodluck Jonathan to the National Assembly last month, was not realistic.
“In the framework forwarded to the National Assembly, we put the oil benchmark at $75 per barrel but, after consultations with stakeholders, we are likely to revise it to $70 per barrel. Most of the oil countries had turbulence, but the situation seems to be over,” he said.
In the same vein, he hinted that the exchange rate being contemplated by the executive in the yet to be forwarded appropriation bill proposal is now N155 to the dollar, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 7.2% and inflation rate of 9.5%.
Okogu, however, explained that these figures were arrived at after a discussion with the National Planning Commission.
The director-general put expected revenue from privatisation at N10 billion and explained that, in view of the past experience where some agencies slated for privatisation could not be sold, there was need for “caution’’.
He added that fiscal deficit had been put at N1.1 trillion and that all government agencies had been asked to sit up in order to make the budget a reality.
On the domestic debt profile, Okogu lamented the quantum but assured that an arrangement had been put in place to reduce it to about N500 billion. ‘’The issue of local debt is now causing a lot of concern. The programme we have will reduce it to about N500 billion,” he said.
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Ehigie Uzamere, had recently put the local debt at about N6 trillion.
In his submission to the committee on finance, Dikko Abdullahi, disclosed that the service was able to realise the revenue target set for it for year 2011 by September, stressing that more revenue would still be realised before the end of the year..
“So far [from January to October 2011], N597,622,172,464.87 has been realised. With this feat, we have surpassed this year’s target even as more is expected for November and December 2011,” he said.
The target for the year was put at N596, 096, 096, 900, 000.00.
Abdullahi also told the committee that, with effect from next year, all activities of the service would be fully automated so that no importer would have reason to have physical contact with officers and men of the service. “By January next year, no importer will have direct contact with customs.
Everything will be on the internet. We are going to have challenges but we are prepared.”
He expressed concern over the activities of exporters whom, he alleged, have a scheme called Negotiable Duty Credit Certificate that allows the importers to collect some revenue amounting to about N50.3 billion. “The amount realised from here goes back to the exporters. It is affecting our operations.
It is not part of our collection.”
He complained about interference from some quarters in the course of operations of the NCS, particularly in the area of seizures.
“What we are seeing is pressure from left and right, that this or that person is mine. We need a political will to help Nigeria Customs apply full weight of the law,” he said.
The chairman of the committee, Bassey Otu, said the committee would do everything to remove impediments to the smooth operation of the NCS’ activities.