Some government agencies on Wednesday opted out of funding from the federal budget and refunded millions of revenues due to the Consolidated Revenue of the Federation.
They took the decision at the ongoing investigation by the Senate Committee Finance on remittances of internally generated revenues by ministries, departments and agencies of government.
Specifically, the heads of National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration, Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited and Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, to varying degrees informed that their agencies should be taken out from the federal budget.
The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, told the committee that her agency could conveniently exit the federal budget to the extent of all overheads as well as capital provisions.
Similarly, the Chairman of NERC, Mr Sanusi Garba, also stated that his agency was ready to completely exit the federal budget.
Garba promised to refund accumulated N28m being the one per cent stamp duties on contracts awarded by the agency that were not remitted by contractors within one week.
The Director General of NIGCOMSAT Limited, Abimbola Alale, also told the committee that it was ready to exit the federal budget with regards to overhead.
The three agencies and others that appeared before the committee were asked to reconcile their IGRs and the one per cent stamp duty accounts for remittance running into billions of naira.
The panel also asked them to report back with the reconciliation for the committee to determine if any remittance was still outstanding to the Fiscal Responsibility Commission.
