FG, States, LGs share N420bn

The Federal Government, States and Local government shared N420 billion in revenue allocation in September.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Dr. Mahmoud Isa- Dutse disclosed this in Abuja yesterday at the end of the Federation Account Allocation Committee( FAAC).

However, there was N90.2 billion allocation shortfall as N510.27 was shared in August.

The reduction sprang from sustained attacks on oil installations and pipeline vandalism that made revenue generation difficult, despite increase in average price of crude oil at global market from $46.0 per barrel in May to $ 48.43 in June.

According to Isa-Dutse, the attacks led to decrease in volume of crude oil export by 1.15 million barrels in the month of June alone, adding that the decrease in revenue cuts across both statutory revenue, Value Added Tax ( VAT) and collection of Customs duty.

While net statutory allocation was N315.045 billion in the previous month, it came down to N250.947 billion in September; VAT was N75.962 billion in previous month but came down to N64.265 billion in September.

For net statutory allocation, federal government got the highest sum of N120.351 billion, states N61.044 billion while local government got N 47.062 billion. The sum of N13.729 billion went to oil producing states as their share of 13% derivation. Balance in Excess Crude Account stood at $2.454billion.

Meanwhile, both the Permanent Secretary of the Finance Ministry and the Accountant- Generation of Federation, Alh. Idris Ahmed hailed the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) recent submission that the, Nigerian economy has re-emerged the largest in Africa, describing it as a “welcome development”.

Specifically, Isa- Dutse said: ,” that Nigeria is back again as the biggest economy in continent is a welcome development. It started some times ago and South Africa took over the lead as the biggest economy, but today, I’m not surprised at all that Nigeria has taken over her leading position given what the federal government is doing to get the economy out of recession. We have the potential of growth to move higher. It will put us in rightful position as a major destination for investors”, he noted.

In his remarks, the Commissioner for Finance, Edo State and Chairman of Commissioner of Finance Forum, Mr. John Inegbedion said the cost of collection deducted by both the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service and Department of Petroleum Service were unconstitutional.