FG will suspend withdrawals from TSA in March

Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi
Adeosun, tuesday disclosed
that the federal government
would suspend all withdrawals
by ministries, departments and
agencies (MDAs) from the
Treasury Single Account (TSA)
at the end of March.
The minister who made the
disclosure while defending the
budget of her ministry before
the Senate Committee on
Finance chaired by Senator
John Eno, was responding to
questions by the committee on
irregular balances in TSA
account. She said money was
going in and out of the
account on a daily basis.
According to her, the ministry
was working hard to determine
the figures in the account
which represented liabilities
with the intention to know
what will be brought forward
to fund the 2016 budget.
“The TSA is the bank account
of the MDAs. We are starting
the process of drawing a line
and March is the deadline.
“In March, we will be able to
make sure that we say to
those agencies – of your
balance in TSA – how much is
capital? How much is
accumulated surplus of the
past? How much is tied to
liabilities?
“That process we have started
and we are engaging with the
agencies and from that, we
will be able to identify how
much can now be used to
fund the budget.
“But the TSA balances change
on a daily basis because of
revenues and monies being
paid out. So, we are drawing a
line.
“When the budget year closes,
then we will do a closing
reconciliation; freeze any
monies that are no longer
available for them to spend
and count as part of our
funding for 2016,” she said.
Adeosun further disclosed that
despite the changes to the
TSA account, the balance still
stood at about N2.2 trillion
adding that before the end of
the financial year by March
2016, the ministry would have
determined what amount of
the money is actually a liability
and what amount is available.
Adeosun added that a lot of
the aspects of the TSA
would still undergo
modifications to address
specific needs.
She argued that the ministry
was also exploring other
revenues that could be used
to fund the budget 2016.
“We believe those revenues
will come in and form part
of the internally generated
revenues (IGR) of
government. The other
recovery that we are
expecting is that we are
looking at those pensions
and salaries. We have
identified that there is a
consistent overpayment of
pension contributions.
“We have put a team
together now to start
recovering those
overpayments because we
have identified some
inflation in our payroll, of
course, that inflation
translates into pensions
contributions.
“Those monies can be
recovered and they are
going to be recovered to
form part of the IGR of the
federal government,” Adeosun
added.
Speaking on behalf of all
agencies under the ministry,
she advocated the need for
performance-based
remuneration for men of the
Nigerian Customs Service
(NCS) with a view to
discouraging corruption.
She added that the ministry
was looking into customs duty
waivers that had been granted
with the intention to determine
their benefits and as well
recommend the revocation of
such waivers that are not
beneficial to Nigeria.