A bill that gives the federal government full authority to collect and administer revenues from concurrent taxes reached the final drafting stage. The bill also affirmed that the regional states could collect these taxes after being delegated by the Ministry of Revenues.

Collection and levy of taxes in profit, sales, excise and personal income on enterprises; on dividends; and taxes and royalties from large-scale mining, petroleum and gas operations now fall under the federal government's exclusive mandate.

Although Article 98 of the Constitution states that the federal and regional governments must levy and collect certain taxes jointly, there has not been a legal framework that clearly defines the Ministry's role and those of regional authorities.

The draft proclamation, which was prepared by a team from the Tax System & Regional Support Directorate at the Revenues Ministry, has been reviewed by senior officials of the Ministry, retouched by the Ministry's legal department, and reviewed by the standing committee for subsidy budget and shared revenues affairs at the House of Federation. Regional offices and experts in the areas also gave comments on the bill.

It is currently pending at the Ministry of Finance for policy compliance reviews before it is sent to the Council of Ministers and the parliament for legislation.

The past system lacked transparency and accountability, and the proclamation will allow for a transparent information transfer and create a sense of accountability, according to Bahru Awol, head of the revenue accounts administration directorate at the Ministry.

The Ministry traditionally distributes the appropriate revenue to the regional administration within a month of collecting taxes.

"If a regional state wasn't paid their share," said Bahru, "there is no system that will hold the Ministry accountable."

The new draft outlines that revenue distribution should be completed within 30 days after tax collection has been declared.

Regional states collecting shared revenues are obligated to their collections by deadlines set by the Ministry; if regions do not abide by the schedule, an equivalent amount of revenue will be held back from upcoming shared revenue or subsidy shares, which are to be sent to the regional state, according to the bill.

There was no well-established auditing mechanism previously in use, according to Bahiru.

The bill declares that the directorate will form an auditing system in collaboration with regional governments. The system will allow the federal and regional governments to conduct auditing together or separately.