Oscarline Onwuemenyi
24 August 2017, SDweetcrude, Abuja – A total of N467.852 billion has been distributed as Federal Allocation for the month of August, 2017 to the Federal Government, State Governments and Local Government Councils, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has stated.
This represented a shortfall of about N185 billion compared to the N652.229 billion shared last month.
Mrs. Adeosun, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, disclosed this at the end of the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja.
She said the gross statutory revenue of N387.319 billion received for the month was lower than the N570.584 billion received in the previous month by N183.266 billion.
She further disclosed the distributable statutory revenue for the month stood at N387.852 billion while VAT collected for distribution stood at N80.533 billion.
She said the decline in revenue was caused by a drastic fall in revenue from Companies Income Tax, CIT, due to the expiration of the deadline for filing tax returns.
She, however, said oil revenues recorded an increase due to rise in export sales by $62 million.
“The increase in the average price of crude oil from $50.27 per barrel to $51.05 per barrel and a significant increase in export volume by 1.20 million barrels resulted in increased revenue from export sales for the federation by $62 million.
“Despite the increases, there were issues of leaking flow lines, shut-ins and shutdowns at terminals for maintenance.”
Giving a breakdown of the allocation, Mrs. Adeosun said the federal government received N193.04 billion, states N130.69 billion and local governments N98.01 billion.
She also said N31.59 billion was given to the nine oil producing states as their 13 per cent derivation. She put the balance in the Excess Crude Account, ECA, at $2.3 billion.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, got N14.508 billion as cost of collection, while balance in excess crude account stood at $2.3 billion.
Chairman, Forum of Finance Commissioners, Mr. Mahmud Yunusa, said it was time for the states to begin to look inwards to shore up their revenue.
He said, “States will explore other options of revenue to depend less on revenue from the centre. We need to block leakages in revenue and come up with reforms to shore up revenue. We are also working on cost of running governance and any cost that is not necessary in running government needed to be reduced.”
He said reforms were currently on in the states to optimise the collection processes for revenue, adding that he was optimistic it would reduce dependence in revenue from the centre to about 50 to 60 per cent.
