The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, today approved the distribution of a total sum of N635.554 billion to the three tiers of government in January.
Giving the figures at the end of the Committee’s meeting which he presided over, the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, disclosed that the gross statutory revenue for the month stood at N538.908 billion, representing a decline of N1.538 billion from the N540.446 billion recorded in December 2017..
The AGF attributed the month-on-month revenue shortfall largely to a decrease in crude oil export earnings in the month under review by $113.86 million. However, he reported that the average price of crude oil increased from $56.83 to $57.71 per barrels during the period.
Idris identified other major causes of the shrink in revenue accruals in the month as the shut-ins and shut-downs of production at various terminals for repairs and the force majeure declared at Bonny Terminal during the month and decreases in Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) and Companies Income Tax (CIT) collections.
However, the AGF reported significant increases in Oil Royalty and Value Added Tax (TAT), while Import Duty also increased marginally
Giving a breakdown of the revenue profiles on source-by-source basis and the shared sums among the tiers of government, the federal chief accounting officer said that Federal Government received a total of N263.283 billion, including VAT.
According to him, the State Governments received a total of N143.902 billion, VAT inclusive, compared to the gross distributions to local governments which stood at N129.985 billion, including VAT.
A further analysis of the revenue distributions to the tiers of government indicated that distributed statutory revenue for the month was N538.908 billion while VAT collections accounted for the balance of the gross distributions totalling N635.554 billion.
The AGF reported that the oil producing states received a total of N52.042 billion as 13 per cent derivation of minerals revenue from a total of N400.325 billion generated from crude oil sale for the month.
Idris disclosed that the total balance of money in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) stood at $2.317 billion while the Excess Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) stood at $133 million.
Commenting on the revenue distributions for the month, the Chairman of Finance Commissioners’ Forum, Mahmoud Yunusa said that the states were satisfied with the revenue shared at the meeting.
He, however, expressed optimism that future distributions to all tiers of government would increase adding that “by March we expect increased revenue and there will be a great chunk of oil revenue.”
