FAAC SHARES N575.46BN TO 3 TIERS OF GOVT

The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) yesterday shared a total of N575.46 billion to the three tiers of government as allocation for the month of January 2013.

Briefing newsmen at the end of the meeting, Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Lawan Ngama, also allayed fears that the economic slowdown in the United States of America would take a toll on demand for Nigeria's crude oil.

He stated that though the slowdown in US economy would definitely affect the demand for crude oil, with US being Nigeria's biggest customer, the impact would not be so severe as to result in any substantial effect.

Moreover, he said the 2013 budget has already factored in the likelihood of decline in demand which can affect the revenue at the end of the day, by fixing the oil benchmark price far below the current price.

'These kinds of ups and downs are to be expected from time to time and the 2013 budget has already taken care of whatever effect of the US economic slowdown will have.' Nonetheless, he maintained that consumption of energy cannot stop altogether and as such there would always be market for the country's crude.

The Committee also transferred a total of N148.7 billion to the Excess Crude Account (ECA) from the January revenue, bringing the savings back to $9.2 billion at the end of the month, after the $1 billion taken from it last December for sharing among the three tiers.

The allocation includes N467.63 billion Statutory, N62.7 billion Value Added Tax (VAT), N35.5 billion SURE-P as well as the N7.6billion refunds from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The federal government got N264.43 billion from the statutory allocation which represents 52 per cent, states N109.7 billion which is 26 per cent, the local governments got N84.635 billion or 20 per cent while the oil producing states shared N49.98billion as the 13 per cent derivation.