RMAFC reduces FG’s allocation to 45.17%, increases states’, LGAs’

I’ll await outcome of constitution review process – Buhari The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has proposed a 3.33 per cent reduction in the current federal government allocation, with increases of 3.07 per cent and 0.44 per cent for states and local government areas respectively on the other hand. This was one of […]

• I’ll await outcome of constitution review process – Buhari

The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has proposed a 3.33 per cent reduction in the current federal government allocation, with increases of 3.07 per cent and 0.44 per cent for states and local government areas respectively on the other hand.

This was one of the recommendations contained in a report RMAFC chairman, Engr Elias Mbam, submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday at the state house in Abuja.

In the new RMAFC proposal, the federal government, which used to get 52.68 per cent, will now receive 45.17 per cent; states will get 29.79 per cent as against their previous 26.72 per cent; and LGAs will now go home with 21.04 per cent as against their previous 20.60 per cent.

Receiving the report, President Buhari said he would await the final outcome of the constitutional review process before presenting the vertical revenue allocation formula to the National Assembly as a bill.

“Ordinarily, I would have gone ahead to table this report before the National Assembly as a bill for enactment.

‘‘However, since the review of the vertical revenue allocation formula is a function of the roles and responsibilities of the different tiers of government, I will await the final outcome of the constitutional review process, especially as some of the proposed amendments would have a bearing on the recommendations contained herein,” Buhari said in a statement issued by his spokesman, Femi Adesina.

The president listed some of the proposed amendments in the report as follows:

“Establishing local government as a tier of government and the associated abrogation of the state/local government account; moving airports, fingerprints, identification and criminal records from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list; empowering the RMAFC to enforce compliance with remittance of accruals into and disbursement of revenue from the federation account, as well as streamlining the procedure for reviewing the revenue allocation formula.”

He assured members of the commission that the federal government would immediately subject the report to its internal review and approval processes while awaiting finalisation of the effort by the National Assembly.

Speaking to reporters after presenting the report, Engr Mbam said the leading philosophy behind the proposed review was guided “by the need for distributive justice, equity and fairness as enshrined in relevant Sections of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).”

He added that the principles took into cognizance the indivisibility of the country, public opinion and weighted constitutional responsibilities and functions of the three levels of government.

Engr Mbam, while explaining the major reasons for the exercise, said since the last review was conducted 29 years ago in 1992, the political structure of the country had changed with the creation of six additional states in 1996 which brought the number of states to 36 and the number of LGAs increased from 589 to 774.