Revenue formula: RMAFC warns politicians against inciting comments

The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, on Monday, warned politicians to stop making inciting comments on the new revenue allocation formula, saying such comments were capable of overheating the polity.

The warning came just as it also revealed that the much-awaited revenue allocation formula that would enable the Federation Account Allocation Committee to distribute statutory allocations from the federation account to the three tiers of government would be released by the end of next month.

The Chairman of the RMAFC, Mr. Elias Mbam, disclosed this in Abuja shortly after a meeting with the Governor of Nasarawa State, Alhaji Umar Tanko Al-Makura.

The current revenue formula has been a subject of controversy with governors especially complaining that the huge allocation to the Federal Government should be slashed.

For instance under the current arrangement, the Federal Government gets 52.68 per cent of the distributable revenue, states 26.72 per cent, while the local governments are allocated 20.60 per cent.

Similarly, additional revenue is given to the oil producing states based on the 13 per cent principle of derivation.

The nine oil producing states that enjoy this are: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.

But the RMAFC boss said that the commission had obtained the necessary inputs from stakeholders and would come up with a new revenue formula that would be fair to all the tiers of government.

He said, “The commission has progressed in the process of the review; a lot has been said and done and I wish to use this opportunity to advise that the issue of reviewing the revenue allocation formula should not be over-politicised. This will not help the process rather it will overheat the polity, and may even generate some level of suspicion among us.

“I want to assure Nigerians that the commission shall be guided by relevant provisions of the law; our findings and consultations will be fair, just and equitable, every memorandum and all interest shall be considered during the reviews. It would be done in such a way that revenue allocation will be directly proportional to responsibility.”

Earlier, Al-Makura urged the commission to consider the proximity of the state to the Federal Capital Territory in making its revenue allocation recommendations.

He pointed out that since Nasarawa is the closest state to Abuja, about 50 per cent of the working population in the nation’s capital reside in Karu, a suburb of the state.

This, he noted, had overstretched the facility of the state since the people who resided there paid their taxes to the Federal Government.

He said, “Nasarawa State being the closest state to the FCT has challenges being a state that hosts more than 50 per cent of the workforce in the FCT.

“Recall that in the federation allocation, the Federal Government is allotted one per cent for the development of the FCT. But ironically, the states that are contiguous with the FCT are the ones absorbing the stress and challenges of the population explosion in the FCT.

“Most of the workers in the FCT who don’t pay their taxes to the state live in the state. Most of our facilities that are meant to cater for the citizens of Nasarawa are overstretched.

He adds, “Karu alone has a population of 1.5 million people and it is for this reason that I am personally appealing to the commission to have a look at the formula that provides the federal capital the one per cent for the development of the FCT because the utilisation of such resources is more eminent in the contiguous state outside the FCT.”