Wale Edun, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy says the federal government is targeting over N113 trillion from the non-oil sector this year.
The minister gave the assurance during his appearance before the House of Representatives committee on Finance.
The oil and gas sector is Nigeria’s major revenue earner, and has received government attention for years despite the huge potentials in other sectors.
Over the years, efforts by successive administrations to diversify has been met with mixed results as experts warn that revenue from oil and gas is drying up.
The situation will change this year, Minister Edun said adding that revenue generated so far by government agencies and MDAs is a pointer that other sectors have started making money for the government.
According to Edun, “What we can see is a substantial increase in remittances by MDAs and revenue generation agencies. We will keep this up and there will be a time we can give further data on this to the committee and the National Assembly.”
The minister said tax waiver is one of the ways the government is working on to plug revenue leakage in the economy.
He explained that some business concerns have capitalize on this to shortchange the government, noting that things would now change as the government is currently considering legislation to eliminate waste.
He said: “We are going to do a way with the exiting system. The system can be rejigged without changing the law. The law says there is a duty waivers for ‘X’ per cent, it doesn’t say whether you should take it upfront or whether you should take it ex ante.
“If you want duty waiver, pay your duty, when we have cleared that you have brought in the goods you said you would bring, you’ll get it back automatically. If you want a duty waiver, pay your duty and get it back. “We are going to do away with so much anomalies and have a seamless process. We are hoping to get the necessary approvals to implement that immediately.”
