The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), has been charged to surpass a target of N15 billion revenue annually as against the N1.2 billion it remitted to the government coffers last year.
The House of Representatives Committee on Finance gave this charge in Abuja, during the ongoing Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper MTEF &FSP interactive session of the committee with the agencies of the Federal Government ahead of the submission of the 2023 National budget.
The committee, while interrogating the Chief Executive Officer of the FCCPC Babatunde Irukekere, charged the agency to gear up and shore up its revenue generation drive, pointing out that the agency was capable of surpassing its target. This came just as the Committee dismissed the submission of the Director of Finance Transmission Company of Nigeria TCN Allen Dutse, on the expenditure of N207 billion for office maintenance and other line items expenditure by the agency in 2021.
Deputy Chairman of the House Committee, Hon Adlbdullahi Seidu, also charged the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of the agencies to bring on board their previous experiences in either private or public sectors on their new roles. He added that the expenditures and remittances of Internally Generated Revenue IGR must be guided by the extant provisions of the Finance Act 2021. On remittance of collected revenues to the Consolidated Revenue Fund CRF of the Federal Government, he said that the committee was worried that there were so many unapproved spending’s going under the drain as repeated line items by the Ministries Departments and Agencies MDAs.
Responding, the FCCPC boss said that the agency was no longer a revenue generating agency per se as the National Assembly had altered the agency’s enabling law from 80 to 50 percent remittance of IGR to government. Meanwhile, the TCN Director of Finance lamented that the agency was underfunded by the government as it budgeted N130 billion and got N7 billion in 2020 and also budgeted N168 billion but got N6 billion in 2022.
