Sam Ikeotuonye 30 March 2016, Sweetcrude, Lagos – Nigeria recorded a shortfall of N20.47 billion in gross statutory revenue, from N290.96 billion in January to N270.49 billion in February due to oil price decline and drop in income from oil and gas royalty, companies income tax and import duty.
According to Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, revenue decline was also due to explosions at the Escravos oil exporting terminal as well as the force majeure declared at the Brass terminal, which led to the shut-down of pipelines at other terminals for repairs and maintenance.
The minister also said a revenue loss of $45.9 million, which was caused by the drop in the average price of a barrel of crude oil from $39.04 in December 2015 to $29.02 in January this year, had a negative impact on government revenue.
She said the drop in revenue impacted negatively on statutory allocation to the three tiers of government as the committee shared the sum of N345.09 billion for the month of February, which fell short of the N370.38 billion shared in January by N25.29 billion.
Adeosun said, “The distributable statutory revenue for the month is N270.49 billion. The sum of N6.33 billion was refunded by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to the Federal Government.
“Also, there was an exchange gain of N3.49 billion, which was proposed for distribution. The total revenue distributable for the current month is N345.09 billion.”