Leadership of the National Assembly yesterday urged the executive arm of government to explore other means of revenue generation to reduce borrowing.
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan made the call during a joint session of the National Assembly for the 2022 Appropriation Bill by President Muhammadu Buhari.
President Buhari had said that his administration would finance the N6.26tn deficit contained in the 2022 budget with N5tn which his administration plans to borrow from local and foreign sources.
He stated this while presenting the 2022 Appropriation Bill consisting of a total aggregate revenue of N16.39tn.
However, the National Assembly said it only approved requests for approval for domestic and external borrowings by the executive arm due to the urgency and importance of the projects with which the funds were to be executed.
Lawan said, “Mr President, the need to enhance revenue generation and collection cannot be overemphasised. The level of budget deficit is high, and both the legislature and the executive should work to reduce this deficit through the availability of more revenues.”
He added that the recent effort by the National Assembly as well as the executive to challenge the revenue generating agencies was a step in the right direction.
Recall that Checkout Magazine had reported the National Assembly had charged revenue generating agencies with remitting 1 trillion Naira annually.
Lawan commended the Senate and House Committees on Finance and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning for working together to improve the level of revenues for the government.
