NATIONAL: Deliver on targets or get sanctioned, Buhari warns MDAs

PRESIDENT Buhari has told government agencies saddled with generating revenue to work hard to meet their targets.

Buhari said this after he signed the N13.5trn 2021 Appropriation Bill into law on Thursday, December 31, 2020.

The President also appealed to the business community to fulfill their tax obligations to the government to enable it have adequate

His words are contained in a statement titled, ‘Deliver on targets or get sanctioned, Buhari warns revenue generating agencies as he signs 2021 Appropriation Bill and 2020 Finance Bill into law’, and shared by presidential aide Lauretta Onochie.

He said, “We are intensifying our domestic revenue mobilization efforts so that we can have adequate resources to fund the 2021 Budget. Revenue Generating Agencies, and indeed all Ministries, Departments and Govt-Owned Enterprises, must work very hard to achieve their revenue targets.

“Relevant agencies are to ensure the realisation of our crude oil production & export targets. Heads of defaulting agencies are warned that they will be severely sanctioned. I also appeal to our fellow citizens & the biz community to fulfill their tax obligations promptly.

“In spite of the adverse impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the nation’s economy and the government’s revenues, we have made appreciable progress in the implementation of the 2020 Budget. As of December 2020, we had released about N1.748 trillion out of a total of N1.962.

“The overall performance of the 2020 Budget currently stands at an impressive of 97.7%. This commendable outcome underscores the importance of our efforts, together with the Legislature, to return to the discipline of a January-to-December fiscal year.

“I commend the sustained mutual understanding, collaboration and high-level engagements between officials of the Executive and Legislative Arms of Government, which have made the accelerated enactment of these Bills possible.”