ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, (FAAC), on Tuesday in Abuja met to share a total of N409.354 billion among the three tiers of government.
The amount, being for the month of May, is made up of N324.061 billion from statutory allocation; N56.04 billion, Value Added Tax (VAT); N6.330 billion as refund by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the Federal Government; as well as N31.240 billion, being exchange gain.
The amount distributed for the month represented a N30.113 billion increase over the N388.339 billion shared for April.
A breakdown of the latest distributions showed that the Federal Government got N151.805 billion from statutory allocation, which represents 52.68 per cent, while states and local government Areas received N76.998 billion and N59.362 billion respectively; representing 26.72 per cent and 20.60 per cent.
From Value Added Tax, VAT, the Federal Government received N8.182 billion while the States and local governments got N27.274 billion and N19.092 respectively.
On the other hand, the oil producing states shared N29.071 billion as the 13 per cent derivation as against N23.109 billion shared in the previous month.
Addressing newsmen at the end of the meeting, Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Anastasia Nwaobia, disclosed that a gross revenue of N324.061 billion was received for the month of May, which was higher than the N282.062 billion received in April by N41.999 billion, due to the improvement from the exchange gain added to the revenue.
According to her, “the gross revenue of N324.061 billion received for the month of May was higher than N282.062 billion received in the previous month by N41.999 billion.
“Delays in issuance of third quarter 2015 Export Permit led to a drop of about 160,000 barrels of Oil Per Day in April, 2015.
“Shut down and shut in of trunks and pipe lines at terminals also continued to impact negatively on crude oil revenue.
“However, an increase in the average price of crude oil from $56.04 in March 2015 to $59.88in April brought about $19.70million gain in revenue.
“Non-oil revenues are expected to perform better in the latter part of 2015 due to some mechanisms put in place by Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).”
Nwaobia assured that the Federal Government has taken steps to block all identified leakages in the system and hopes that the source of revenue to government would continue to improve in coming months.
Commenting on the Excess Crude Account (ECA), she explained that the reserve stood at $2.08 billion as of Tuesday, from which they had the refund of N6.360 billion.
Commenting on the $1.18 billion missing from the NNPC forensic audit report, she said the matter is being considered and that when a decision is taken on it, information would be made available to the public.
She however said the NNPC has not refunded any money as recommended by the PWC forensic audit report, contrary to claims by Mrs. Deziani Allison-Madueke, the former Petroleum Resources Minister.
The Permanent Secretary explained that the FAAC meeting could not hold last week, following the dissolution of the federal and state cabinets, which meant there were no Ministers and Commissioners.
She also explained that the Accountant General of the Federation exited office on June 12 and as such they had to get clearance on who stands in for him, because of the importance attached to the office.
On the issue of the Federal Government owing salaries, she dismissed the claim saying that there was no agency or ministry that is owing staff salaries as of yesterday.
Credit: Daily Independent (Nigeria)
