Bayelsa Gov’t fault RMAFC over ‘Bankruptcy’ rating, demand revenue from oil and gas operations

Bayelsa Government has faulted the report released by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) on the low level of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by some state governments becoming insolvent after their IGR collections were declared “extremely poor”, demanding that the Federal Government should allow them control their resources and collect taxes from oil exploration companies operating in the State.

The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) through its Chairman, Mr Elias Mbam, had on Monday raised the concern that the Federation Account was currently over stressed by the unending demands of the three tiers of government of Bayelsa,Katsina,Taraba,Bornu and Kebbi States,urging states to evolve creative ways of fattening their IGR to lessen the strain on the federal purse.

But the Bayelsa State Government, through the technical adviser on treasury and revenue generation, Hon. Timipre Seipulo , during the third edition of transparency brief for the months of May, June and July, 2020, demanded for the control of their oil and gas resources maintaining that if it was in control of it’s resources, the state wouldn’t have been one of the states mentioned by federal government to be bankrupt.

According to Timipre Seipulo, assuming the federating nature was not the way it works, probably the state’s internally generated revenue should have included revenue from oil and gas,” Because oil and gas are our own natural resources. But unfortunately because of the federating nature, a lot of things are determined by the federal government. We also know that a lot of fiscal policies are driven by the government. That is why you see that we call for restructuring from the federal government”.

“The few states that they called, we know that some states something naturally supports their revenue structure. That is why they said only few states have met their revenue expectations. The state government was agitating that the oil and gas companies operating in the South South region should pay taxes to the states. Federal Inland Revenue is collecting monies that should come to the state. If you look at the federating structure and the type of federation we operate, then you can see these developments. For the fact that all states and the federal government depend on these allocations, you cannot say that any state is technically insolvent”.

Earlier, the permanent secretary of information Freston Akpor pointed out that the transparency briefing was a requirement by law to avail members of the public of the state’s finances, “Government is duty bound by law to do this and it has become a ritual initiated by the former administration which this administration is continuing with”.

“I commend government in keeping with tradition. This shows transparency and accountability. This shows that the present administration has the well with all to manage the finances of the state. This transparency will help us appreciate what the administration is doing. He said.

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