Tag: Wale Edun

No plans to increase tax rates – FG assures Nigerians

Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Wale Edun has disclosed the federal government has no plans to increase tax rates.

Edun made the disclosure on Monday during an interactive session with members of the House of Representatives committee on appropriation.

The Minister said the government’s target is to improve collection efficiency to get more people into the tax net.

“I would say there is no plan for the increase in the tax rates as such. The plan is to increase the revenue from taxation,” Edun said.

He went further to say: “The plan is to increase taxation returns — tax revenue as a percentage of GDP from around nine percent as it is now within three years to 18 percent which is closer to the African average.

“In a government that is dependent on foreign direct investment, including domestic investment is dependent on private sector investment to grow the economy, create jobs and reduce poverty.

“The intention would be where possible, to reduce taxes to allow people to have more money to invest in job creation and production. I think it is very important to make that clear.

“So, the emphasis is on collection, it is not on increasing the tax rate. It is increasing the efficiency of tax administration, particularly collection”.

Edun stressed low taxation attracts investment, allowing people to have more money to inject in job creation.

December 11, 2023
Minister applauds Tinubu on 2024 budget

Chief Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, says the presentation of the N27.5 trillion 2024 budget by President Bola Tinubu, is a right step in the right direction.

Edun said this when he spoke with newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja.

“As the president named it a budget of renewed hope, it is a budget that is taking us to the right direction in terms of making sure the economy is stable and making sure there is emphasis and reliance on the private sector.
“The President talked about improving security. The supplementary budget was largely aimed at funding the security architecture so that as he mentioned in his budget speech, there will be emphasis on private-public partnership.

“The N27.5 budget will be financed wiyh about N8 trillion of borrowing. This is a vast improvement on the previous situation.

“So deficit financing as the percentage of the overall economy is halved from over six per cent to just about three per cent and that’s a move from a right direction, that is stability.

“That is really a priority for Mr President,” he said.
Edun also lauded the president on the exchange rate of N750 to dollar, saying it was realistic.

“We don’t have total control. But that’s a best estimate. If you look at where the exchange rate is now, it looks reasonable.

“The thing about assumptions is that they should be realistic and the things about estimates is that they should be reasonable.

“In this N27.5 trillion budget, the assumptions are realistic and the estimates are reasonable,” he said.
Also, Alhaji Abubakar Bagudu, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, said the President had a track record on budget implementation.
“There has been two supplementary budget already. One, the N800 million and N500 billion, and the 2023 appropriation.

“The 2024 budget is further to cement the macro-economy. The National Assembly is going to scrutinise the budget and we hope that we would be able to pass it in the next few weeks.

“The budget is coming in good time to allow us a good time to allow for it to be passed Dec. 31.

“We are going to have a budget town hall meeting to ensure that the budget is peoples oriented,” he said.
Bagudu added: “We would have a town hall meeting where Nigerians can have a say. We are happy about the budget. We don’t believe that Nigerians should live on palliatives forever but that they get enough capital to live their lives.”

November 30, 2023
Federation account witnessing improved revenue inflow – Edun

The Minister of Finance, Mr Wale Edun has said the Federation Account is witnessing improved revenue inflow since the removal of subsidy.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Edun to have said the federal government records an average of N650 million monthly to over N1 trillion in the last four months.

The Minister stated this on Monday in Asaba at the opening ceremony of a four-day retreat organised for members of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) .

Edun, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Finance, Special Duties, Mr Okokon Udo, said the government had for long, realised that petroleum subsidy was not sustainable.

According to him, subsidy regime eroded revenues that should had been available to fund viable expenditures that were critical to the well-being of the populace.

The Minister said the present administration was mindful of the needs and welfare of Nigerians and assured that it would continue to implement peoples oriented policies..

“’We all know that achieving tax revenue to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) target of 22 per cent and tax to GDP of 18 per cent by 2026 are parts of the cardinal objectives of this administration.

”However, in doing that we appreciate the needs not to overburden the tax payers by introducing so many new taxes.

”What is necessary to be done is to broaden the tax base, simplify and streamline tax administration for ease of collection,” he said.

Edun added “Among the prior activities of this government after coming into office, was the constitution of a Presidential Committee of Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforns.

“The committee has submitted an interim report which is full of optimism’’.

The minister also noted that the present administration was not oblivious of the untold hardship faced by Nigerians, following the removal of fuel subsidy, and harmonisation of exchange rates.

He reassured that all the sacrifices made by people would never be in vain.

”Government is bent on ensuring that the economy bounces back to normal as we continue to consolidate on recovery efforts with focusing on achieving inclusive economic growth and development,” he added.

Edun said that President Bola Tinubu-led administration has so far put in place a well-structured palliative measures to cushion the economic consequences of the ongoing reforms.

On the theme of theme of the Retreat, ”Creating a Resilient Economic through Diversification of the Nation’s Revenue”, the minister commended the choice, stressing that it was suitabl.

Edun also noted that retreat clearly outlined the urgent need to diversify the nation’s economy.

In an opening remark, Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta tasked the federal government to muster the political will by putting necessary policy and institutional framework in place to diversify the nation’s economy.

The governor, represented by his Deputy, Sir Monday Onyeme said that there was no magic wand to diversify the nation’s economy from over dependence on revenue from crude oil unless concerted efforts were made in other key sectors.

He noted that the diversification of the nation’s economy must go beyond mere rhetoric to concrete measurable steps by facilitating the non-oil exports such as agricultural products, manufactured goods and services as well as the expansion of the revenue base.

Oborevwori affirmed that Delta was taking the lead to diversify its economy by creating a Trade and Export unit to drive the process in order to make economic diversification a reality.

He noted that some schools of thought believed that the discovery of crude oil which led to the neglect of agriculture and other revenue yielding non-oil sectors of the economy was a curse.

Oborevwori said the country had not properly managed its oil wealth adding that it was worrisome that the oil sector contributed between five per cent and seven per cent of the nation’s GDP.

He added that the non-oil sector mostly agriculture, agribusiness, manufacturing and small scale enterprises contributed 93 per cent to 95 per cent, yet the bulk of public revenue was from the oil and gas sector.

”Statistics have made it more exigent for the government to grow the non-oil sector to widen the revenue base, nwhile ensuring that maximum benefits were derived from the e oil industry,” he said.

The governor commended FAAC committee for its commitment to duty by enhancing revenue accruals into the federation account.

He urged the committee to look into the payment of 13 per cent derivation to oil producing states.

Oborevwori challenged the committee to use the retreat to address the concerns raised by stakeholders in respect of the new roles of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, among others by giving better understanding on their roles in the economic diversification of the country.

Accountant Generals from the thirty six states and the FCT as well as other stakeholders such as the Customs are attending the retreat.

November 20, 2023
Why we cannot rely on borrowing to fund 2024 budget – Edun

Mr Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy has said Nigeria cannot rely on borrowing to fund the 2024 budget.

Edun stated this on Thursday when he appeared before the joint Senate Committee on the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) in Abuja.

He stated that the best way Nigeria could fund its budget was to spend more money on infrastructure to generate more revenue.

“Clearly the environment that we have now, internationally as well as nationally we are in no position to rely on borrowing.

“We have an existing borrowing profile. Our direction of tariff is to reduce the quantum of borrowing or intercepting deficit financing in the 2024 budget.

“Simply put internationally there is focus among rich countries on bringing down the inflation rate to stabilise the economies and give them opportunity for investment growth.

“They are in the process, sacrificing that immediate goal for compacting their economies or at least contracting the money supplies and pushing up the interest rates and of course high interest rates and investments don’t go together,” he said

Edun added: “What is left for us to access those funds are expensive so it is the last thing that we must rely on. As we know we have all the figures and debt servicing and cushioning 98 per cent of government revenue.

“The last thing you can think of is to pile up more debts. Government needs to not just maintain its activity, it needs to spend more.

“If you look at government spending, if you look at the budget as a percentage of GDP, ours is one of the lowest being 10 per cent, even Ghana is at 25 per cent, rich ones they are 50 per cent.”

“The very rich countries have to be most advanced in terms of social safety nets and its social security system at 70 per cent of GDP. Government spending definitely will lead to increase in revenues

“The number one source of revenue especially in short term, even in the medium term is all revenue.”

Sen. Sani Musa, the Chairman of the committee expressed the fears that the revenue projections of government Ministries, Departments and Agencies that had so far appeared before the MTEF-FSP panel, were lower than the Federal Government projections for 2024.

November 16, 2023
FG eyes $1.5B World Bank loan after $390m Tinubu’s UNGA hotel bill

The Nigerian government is in the process of securing an additional $1.5 billion loan from the World Bank to address the fiscal gap in the 2023 budget.

Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Wale Edun, shared this at the 2023 Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Marrakech, Morocco.

Edun said the loan aimed at supporting the budget, comes with minimal interest rates, promoting the economic recovery and attracting both domestic and foreign investments.

This is coming weeks after the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), where President Bola Tinubu spent a substantial $507,384 of taxpayers’ money in hotel accommodations.

A memo signed by the permanent secretary of the state house Adebiyi O. Olufunso, dated September 11, 2023, revealed that $422,820 (N325.5 million) was allocated for rooms at the St. Regis Hotel in New York from September 16 to 23, covering Tinubu and his close aides.

An additional $84,564 (65.1 million Naira), constituting 20 per cent of the reservation cost, was allocated for incidentals.

While specifics about the incidentals were not outlined in the memo seen by TheNewsGuru.com (TNG), which was first published by Peoples Gazette, they typically cover extra services and amenities not included in room rates.

At the current exchange rate, this amounts to a total of N390,690,753.

The memo, titled ‘Re: Mr. President’s Participation at the 7th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), New York from 17th-23rd September 2023’, sought the president’s approval for the Federal Ministry of Finance Budget, and National and Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to process the payment.

The second page of the memo bore the endorsement “Payment authorised as requested,” indicating president Tinubu’s approval.

According to the memo, the fund was to be made from the 15 per cent Wheat Grain Levy Pool Account, an account opened in 2012 to hold receipts of the import levy imposed by the Jonathan administration to discourage wheat importation and encourage local production of cassava flour.

Public interest and human rights lawyer Inibeh Effiong, reacting to the expenditure, said, “Almost $500,000 spent for hotels and other extravagant purposes for Nigeria to be represented at the recent United Nations General Assembly Meeting in New York.

“This says a lot about the claims that Nigeria is broke and that citizens need to endure and suffer. Nigeria is not poor, we have a spending problem. We have a kleptomaniac and heartless political class.”

Award-winning controversial investigative journalist David Hundeyin added: “Civil services around the world – even in supposedly ‘democratic’ countries – are far too opaque and unavailable for public scrutiny for them to be the central institution in any kind of ‘open society.’

“This needs to change immediately, and the technology already exists. If JP Morgan, which does between $3trn and $5trn worth of transactions everyday can present Jamie Dimon with full visibility over every cent in real time on his computer screen, there is no reason why a civil service controlling a total annual budget of about $30bn somehow cannot do the same.”

October 16, 2023
FG seeks fresh $1.5bn from World Bank for budget support

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun has disclosed the federal government is in discussion with the World Bank for a 1.5 billion dollars budget support.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Mr Edun made the disclosure on Saturday in Marrakech, at the ongoing World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) Annual Meetings.

“The World Bank is the number one development bank that helps developing countries to fund their projects and programmes. We are happy that the funding will come in soon. World Bank money is the cheapest,” Edun said.

Speaking further, the Minister said that the government was concerned about financing.

He stressed that President Bola Tinubu will not go above statutory limits in obtaining budget support facilities from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through the Ways and Means Advances.

Recall stakeholders and financial experts had criticised former President Muhammadu Buhari for worsening the country’s debt burden by obtaining more than N22.7 trillion in Ways and Means Advances from the apex bank.

Edun said that Tinubu was committed to “keeping with the spirit and the letter” of autonomy of the CBN.

“About one trillion dollars is needed to meet the target of climate change globally. This is a climate financing fund which is relatively cheap.

“There is also a commitment to help Africa and the third world with climate transition because they are not responsible for climate change in any substantial way.

“One of the ways to help them is through climate financing and we will be looking at green bond and more climate financing options,” he said.

October 15, 2023
Finance Minister says Nigeria’s debt sustainable

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, says the country’s debt situation is sustainable and does not require restructuring.

Edun said this on Saturday in Marrakech, on the sidelines of the ongoing World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) Annual Meetings.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that Nigeria’s public debt stock as at December 31, 2022 stood at N46.25 trillion, equivalent to 103.11 billion dollars.

According to Debt Management Office (DMO), the public debt stock of the country consists of the domestic and external debts of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and the sub-national governments.

The DMO is the Federal Government agency established to coordinate the management of national debts.

Edun, who however, agreed that the country’s debt service revenue was on the high side, said that the response to that was to improve both oil and non-oil revenue.

“Also, we have spent time meeting oil producers and encouraging them to invest further in production, so as to boost revenue as oil prices are relatively high.

“President Bola Tinubu has also inaugurated a fiscal policy and tax reforms committee that is already working on improving revenue generation.

“The committee has a target of moving the country from under 10 per cent tax-to-GDP to 18 per cent within a year. That is also a way of dealing with debt servicing,” he said.

According to the minister, the more revenue you have the more affordable debt servicing will be.

“The world we are in now is a world of high interest rates. Debt is becoming unaffordable, ” he said.

He said that with the courageous steps that the Nigerian government under Tinubu had taken, the country was at the forefront of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that would further boost revenue generation.

“There is more to be done, but Nigeria is on the right path, taking the right decisions for the economy to recover and attract FDIs, and also achieve inclusivity of women and youths.

“These are painful reforms, but there is a set of interventions being rolled out to cushion their effects and improve the well-being of Nigerians,” Edun said.

October 15, 2023
FG ends borrowing – Finance Minister, Edun

The Federal Government says it has no intention to borrow from any local or foreign organisation with its removal of subsidy on petrol and exchange rate harmonisation.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Chief Wale Edun, revealed this at the end of the inaugural Federal Executive Council meeting on Monday in Abuja.

He said that the benefit of the subsidy removal would be ploughed back into various sectors aimed at boosting government revenue and improving business environment for local and foreign investment.

Edun said that with the increased revenue from subsidy removal, various palliatives have been made available to cushion its effect on a short, medium and long term basis.

He reiterated the President Bola Tinubu-led administration’s desire to bring back the economy from the wood it has found itself over time.

Similarly, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Doris Uzoka-Anite, said investment offers were already coming up in different sectors of the economy, including oil and gas, health, solid minerals and agriculture.

She said that her ministry would collaborate with relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government to achieve the president’s commitment to creation of jobs for the teeming youthful population of Nigeria.

On his part, the Minister of Health, Dr Ali Pate, said that critical sections of the health value chain would be exploited to improve the economy and create jobs for Nigerians.

He said that the president had directed them to be courageous and innovative in taking decisions that would benefit the country, adding that the president has already taken such moves.

Pate said that the president was responsive to the need to set the economy on the path of progress with his move to remove subsidy on petrol from the first day on his inauguration.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, said that the president charged the cabinet members to be transparent in their dealings, especially in disseminating necessary information.

He urged the media to avail themselves of the opportunity of verifying and fact checking their stories in order not to misinform the public.

August 28, 2023
FAAC: How FG, States, LGCs shared N966bn for July

The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), has shared N966.110 billion revenue to the Federal Government, States and Local Government Councils (LGCs) for July.

This is contained in a communiqué issued at the end of FAAC meeting for August, which was chaired by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun.

According to the communique, the N966.110 billion total distributable revenue comprised distributable statutory revenue of N397.419 billion, distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N271.947 billion, and Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) revenue of N12.840 billion.

It also comprised Exchange Difference revenue of N283.904 billion.

“In July, the total deductions for cost of collection was N62.419 billion, and total deductions for savings, transfers, refunds and tax credit cancellation was N717.962 billion.

“The balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) was 473,754.57 dollars”.

According to the communiqué, from the total distributable revenue of N966.110 billion; the Federal Government received N374.485 billion, state governments received N310.670 billion and the LGCs received N229.409 billion.

It said that N51.545 billion was shared as 13 per cent derivation revenue to oil derivation states.

“Gross statutory revenue of N1150.424 billion was received for the month of July.

“This was lower than the sum of N1152.921 billion received in the month of June by N2.497 billion.

“From the N397.419 billion distributable statutory revenue, the Federal Government received N190.489 billion, the State governments received N96.619 billion and the LGCs received N74.489 billion.

“The sum of N35.822 billion was shared to the relevant States as 13 per cent derivation revenue,” it said.

It said that the gross revenue available from VAT was N298.789 billion.

“This was higher than the N293.411 billion available in the month of June 2023 by N5.378 billion.

“The Federal Government received N40.792 billion, the State Governments N135.974 billion and the LGCs received N95.181 billion from the N271.947 billion distributable VAT revenue.

“The N12.840 billion EMTL was shared as follows:

“The Federal Government received N1.926 billion, the State Governments received N6.420 billion and the Local Government Councils received N4.494 billion.

“From the N283.904 billion Exchange Difference revenue, the Federal Government received N141.278 billion, the State governments received N71.658 billion, the LGCs received N55.245 billion.

“The sum of N15.723 billion was shared to the relevant states as 13 per cent mineral revenue,” the communique said.

According to the communiqué, import and Excise Duties and EMTL increased considerably in July, while VAT increased marginally.

“Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Companies Income Tax (CIT) and Oil and Gas royalties recorded significant decreases,” it said.

August 23, 2023
Just In: FG unveils new public service rules

The Federal Government has unveiled new Public Service Rules for immediate implementation in the service.

The unveiling was done by Mr. Olawale Edun, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on monetary policies, at a public service lecture, as part of the activities to mark the 2023 Civic Service Week in Abuja on Thursday.

The theme for the service week is: ‘Digitalisation of work processes in the public service: A gateway to efficient resources utilisation and national development’.

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, said Nigeria was fully keying into digitalised public service to meet the required global standards of service operations, hence the need for digital policy in the service.

“Following the very extensive work carried out to put in place the required mechanisms for the smooth transition from physical handling of tasks, I am pleased to state that the office of the Head of Service has gone digital with its work processes.

“By this, I mean, all the personal and policy files have been scanned and store in digital format; workflow processes are now transacted within the office digitally,” she said.

According to Yemi-Esan, all official correspondence in form of memos, internal and external circulars are processed electronically through the Enterprise Content
Management (ECM) being one of the pillars of the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021 –2025 (FCSSIP25).

The initiative she said, was designed to transform the Federal Civil Service into a world class service that had noted the need for digitisation of the public service.

The HOS said all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were expected to key into digitisation initiative by the end of the year 2025.

“From the service-wide perspective, all MDAs are running with the digitisation programme and are at different stages of implementation; with a mandate for all to achieve full migration by the end of 2025.

“It is pleasing to note, some MDAs have also deployed some ECM solutions for their workflows, ” she said.

Edun expressed delight over the introduction of technology in the civil service system, adding that such innovative ideas could make work faster and reliable in the course of delivering services to the workers.

July 27, 2023