16 April 2013, Lagos – Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday, said the country earned N599 billion from crude oil in January, while Federal Government overspent its budget by N178 billion in the same month.
The apex bank disclosed this in its economic report for January released yesterday, which shows that total federal revenue in January was 4.1 percent below the budget estimate.
The report said: “Federally-collected revenue (gross)in January 2013, at N774.8 billion, was below the provisional monthly budget estimate by 4.1 percent, but exceeded the receipt at end December 2012 by 1.8 percent.
“The decline relative to provisional monthly budget estimate was attributed to the fall in non-oil revenue during the review period.
“At N599.0 billion, oil receipts (gross), which constituted 77.3 percent of the total revenue, exceeded the provisional budget estimate and receipts in the preceding month by 8.3 and 2.2 percent, respectively.
“The rise in oil receipts relative to the proportionate monthly budget estimate was attributed to increase in prices of crude oil in the international market during the review period.
“Relative to the level in the corresponding period of 2012, gross oil receipts, however, fell by 33.5 percent non-oil receipts (gross), at N175.8 billion or 22.7 percent of the total, was 31.0 and 13.8 per cent lower than the provisional monthly budget estimate and the receipts in the corresponding period of 2012.
“Relative to the preceding month, non-oil receipts rose marginally by 0.2 percent. The decline relative to the monthly budget estimate reflected, largely the low receipts from corporate tax and independent revenue of the Federal Government.
“Of the federally-collected revenue (gross), N462.43 billion (after all deductions and transfers) was transferred to the Federation Account for distribution among the three tiers of government and the 13.0% Derivation Fund.
“Federal Government received N217.42 billion, while the state and local governments received N110.28 billion and N85.02 billion, respectively. The balance of N49.71 billion was credited to the 13.0% Derivation Fund for sharing by the oil-producing states.
“From the VAT Pool Account, the Federal Government received N8.29billion, while the state and local governments received N27.62 billion and N19.33 billion, respectively.
“Overall, the total allocation to the three tiers of government from the Federation and VAT Pool Accounts in the month amounted to N560.83 billion. This was lower than the provisional monthly budget estimate of N570.57 billion by 1.7 percent.
*Babajide Komolafe, Vanguard