- Anxiety, fear grip civil servants over impending job losses
BY COBHAM NSA – The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, says challenging fiscal constraints notwithstanding, the Federal Government has packaged strategic initiatives towards a robust income drive to achieve its N10.74 trillion financing target for the 2022 budget.
This is as the Minister also dropped the hints on job losses ahead of plans to downsize the government’s workforce in line with current economic realities in the country.
Unveiling the revenue drive initiative at the Public Presentation and Breakdown of Highlights of the 2022 Appropriation Act in Abuja on Wednesday, Mrs Ahmed said the government team would not relent in its vigorous pursuit of the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiatives (SRGI) for improved fiscal position this year.
Mrs Ahmed disclosed that several measures have been earmarked under the SRGI to not only enhance government revenue but invariably entrench fiscal prudence with emphasis on achieving value for money.
Specifically, the Minister said actions under the initiatives would cover “Evaluation of the process and policy effectiveness of Fiscal Incentives, including the review of sectors eligible for Pioneer Tax Holiday Incentives under the Industrial Development Income Tax Relief Act; dimensioning the cost of tax waivers/concessions, and evaluating their policy effectiveness; setting annual ceilings on Tax Expenditures to better manage their impact on already constrained government revenues; and ensuring that MDAs appropriately account for and remit their internally-generated revenue.”
According to her, the is a strong resolve to identify and plug existing revenue leakages for enhanced tax compliance and reduction in tax evasion, as well as, leveraging technology and automation to eliminate drainers like subsidies from the government’s financial system.
On expected revenue streams for the government going forward, Mrs Ahmed said the oil revenue forecast of N 3.362 trillion to finance the 2022 budget is about N1.350 trillion, representing 67.18 per cent, higher than the 2021 target of N 2.011 trillion.
Similarly, the Minister said the Federal Government share of Non-Oil Taxes is projected at over N 2.132 trillion this year, representing about 43.27 percent above last year’s budget of N1.488 trillion, adding that N2.216 trillion would be earned as Independent Revenue.
She explained that the projected figure is up from the 2021 budget of 1.061, which significantly rose to N1.1 trillion in actual collection as at November 2021.
Mrs Ahmed listed other revenue streams as: Dividend from various investments in companies, N195. 716 billion; NLNG Dividend, N187.397 billion; Share from Share of Minerals & Mining, N2.915 billion; Share of Electronic Money Transfer Levy (formerly called Stamp Duty), 29.367 billion down from 500 billion in the preceding year; and Share of Oil Price Royalty, N96.943 billion.
Also on the list are: Revenue from Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs) – N3.306 billion, up from N2.173 billion budgeted for 2021; Domestic Recoveries – N 26.933 billion; Grants and Donor Agencies funding – N63.376 billion; Education Tax – N305.998 billion; Draw down from Special Levies Accounts – N 300.000 billion; and Signature Bonus – 280.855 billion.
However, responding to questions during the session, Mrs Ahmed admitted that retrenching workers was imperative in stemming the huge annual recurrent expenditure by the government.
The Minister did offer hopes that the government is considering many viable options on the table, saying exit packages for the workers could be one of them.
She explained that the job loss would mainly arise from proposed merger and dissolution of agencies and parastatals under different ministries, based on the Oronsanye Report.
She said, “There is a Special Committee, led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), that is working on the review of agencies; with a view to collapsing them partly using the Oransanye Report.
“At the end of it, what we want to do is to reduce the size of government and also to reduce the size of personnel cost; and part of it will be designing the exit packages that are realistic.”
The Minister, who openly acknowledged the financially challenging times for the government, said; “We are revenue challenged. So, for everything we do, we can’t put an exit package if you are not willing to cash it immediately. So, when you are asking people to exit by choice; you must be able to give them that package as they are exiting.
“There are so many things happening. These are not easy decisions to make because they affect people and families. So, you have to make sure that whatever we commit to; we are actually going to deliver on it.”
