BY ODILI CHRISTEL
The three tiers of government in the Nigerian federation would share a sum of #510,271m as statutory allocation for the month of September, 2016, the
Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) has announced.
The FAAC disclosed in a communiqué that the Gross Revenue of N510.271 billion received for the month was higher than the N493,828 billion received in the previous month by N16.443 Billion.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said that the Net Statutory Allocation of N303.722 billion was shared with the Federal Government receiving N149.310 billion, state governments received N75.732 billion and local governments received N58.386 billion while the oil producing states received N20.293 billion as 13 per cent derivation of mineral revenue.
She noted that the distributable Statutory revenue is N315.045 billion, the sum of N6.330 billion was refunded by NNPC to FGN, also that there is a proposed distribution of N35 billion Excess petroleum Profit Tax with an exchange gain of N84.263 billion proposed for distribution, pegging the total revenue distributable for the current month including VAT at N510,270 billion”.
Adeosun stated further that there was $109.40 million revenue increase in Federation Export sales as a result of the increase in average price of crude oil from $42.21 in April to $46.06 per barrel in May 2016, adding also that the Excess Crude Account (ECA)presently is $291,657,455,198.
The breakdown of the Value Added Tax (VAT) distribution for the month of September is as follows : the sum of N75.962 billion from Value Added Tax (VAT) and less 4% cost of collection leading to a net total of N72.924 was shared with the Federal government receiving N10.939billion, states, N36.462 billion and local governments with, N25.523billion
Speaking after the FAAC brief, the Chairman commissioner’s Forum, Hon. John Osagie Igbinedion noted that no doubts the past 9months of this year has been very challenging and in the light of this government has put in place strategies to regig the Nigerian economy back to a stable state.
He noted that the defaults in payment of salaries across the states has reduced to a significant point, disclosing that the improved collection of taxes revenue now has a visible growth.
While speaking on the current hit of recession, he emphasized that it has struck both the oil and the non-oil producing states, he pointed that a major contributor to the recession is the ongoing activities of militant’s vandalization of oil pipelines. He further called on perpetrators of the destructive activities to put an end to it.
The commissioner urged states to look inwards to boost it’s personal state revenue growth. He further called on states to look into areas of agriculture has it does not only boost source of revenue but also serves as a means of job creation.
He finally speculated that come 2018 Nigeria would over grow the importation of rice and other products been imported into the country.