![\"IMF\"](\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMF.png\")
rward for the country, said that the fuel subsidy scheme was no longer relevant because the rich had hijacked it.<\/p>\nMs Christine Lagarde has told the National Assembly that the days of sharing oil rev\u00adenue were over.\u00a0She tasked lawmakers and the Executive arm of government to take hard decisions to deliv\u00ader Nigeria from the present economic recession.<\/p>\n
The IMF boss, who engaged the NASS leadership on the way forward for the country, said that the fuel subsidy scheme was no longer relevant because the rich had hijacked it.<\/p>\n
Lagarde advised the govern\u00adment to jack up the current five percent Value Added Tax (VAT) and curb leakages in the pub\u00adlic sector to raise more funds to provide services for the ordi\u00adnary Nigerians.<\/p>\n
She lamented that Nigeria was spending 35kobo of eve\u00adry naira it earned to service its huge debt.
\nThe IMF MD, who met with President Muhammadu Buha\u00adri on Tuesday, told the Senate President Bukola Saraki that in considering this year\u2019s budget, the Federal Government must take hard decisions on reve\u00adnue, expenditure, debt and in\u00advestment.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI see an imme\u00addiate priority \u2013 a fundamen\u00adtal change in the way govern\u00adment operates. What do I mean by that? The new reality of low oil prices and low oil revenues means that the fiscal challenge facing government is no long\u00ader about how to divide the pro\u00adceeds of Nigeria\u2019s oil wealth, but what needs to be done so that Nigeria can deliver to its peo\u00adple the public services they de\u00adserve \u2013 be it in education, health or infrastructure\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThis means that hard deci\u00adsions will need to be taken on revenue, expenditure, debt, and investment going forward. My policy refrain is this:<\/em> \u201cNigeria\u2019s debt is relatively low at about 12 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But it weighs heavily on the public purse. Already, about 35 kobo of every naira collected by the Federal Government is used to service outstanding public debt\u201d.<\/em> Ms Christine Lagarde has told the National Assembly that the days of sharing oil rev\u00adenue were over.\u00a0She tasked lawmakers and the Executive arm of government to take hard decisions to deliv\u00ader Nigeria from the present economic recession. The IMF boss, who engaged the NASS leadership on the way forward for the country, said that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[1013,1167],"class_list":["post-7132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-imf","tag-ms-christine-lagarde"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMF.png","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-1R2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7134,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7132\/revisions\/7134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cAct with resolve- by step\u00adping up revenue mobilisation. The first step is to broaden the tax base and reduce leakages by improving compliance and en\u00adhancing collection efficiency. At the same time, public finances can be bolstered further to meet the huge expenditure needs. For example, the current VAT rate is among the lowest in the world and well below the rates in other Economic Communi\u00adty of West African States (ECO\u00adWAS) members \u2013 so some in\u00adcrease should be considered.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u201cExercise restraint- by fo\u00adcusing on the quality and ef\u00adficiency of every naira spent. This is critically important. As more people pay taxes there will, rightly, be increasing pres\u00adsure to demonstrate that those tax payments are producing im\u00adprovements in public service delivery.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"