RMAFC Set to Review Revenue Sharing Formula

By James Emejo

The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has finalised plans to review the revenue allocation formula, which guides how accruals to the Federation Account are shared among the federal, state and local governments.

The Chairman, Mr. Elias Mbam, said yesterday in Abuja that the proposed review was targeted at equitable distribution of the accrued revenue into the Federation Account.

He spoke while receiving members of the National Assembly Service Commission led by their Chairman, Mr. Ahmed Amshi, who visited the commission.

He assured them that the exercise will be concluded before the end of the year.

Mbam stated in a statement by the commission’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr. Nwachukwu Christian, that the RMAFC remained one of the 14 executive bodies contained in the 1999 Constitution as altered and saddled with the statutory function of reviewing, periodically, the revenue allocation formula and principles in operation to ensure conformity with changing realities alongside monitoring appropriate revenue accruals to the Federation Account by revenue-generating agencies.

He stated that the review of remuneration for political and judicial office holders will equally begin as soon as the federal government released funds for it.

According to him, the review of the sharing formula will first concentrate on the vertical formula, which has to do with sharing of revenue between federal, states and local governments.

He added that this will be followed by a horizontal formula, which involves sharing among states and among local governments.

In his remarks, Amshi assured the commission of the support of the legislature in the area of manpower development considering that the RMAFC has a similar organisational structure as the National Assembly.