FG, states, LGs share N721.51bn from Federation Account

By The Citizen

The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee on Wednesday night shared the sum of N721.51bn among the three tiers of government for the month of April

The amount represents a decrease of N9.628bn or 1.3 per cent over the N731.133bn shared in March.

This was contained in a communiqué issued after the meeting and signed by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Otunla.

A breakdown of the allocation showed that N531.332bn was shared under statutory sources; N54.571bn under Value Added Tax, while N92.436bn was the augmentation done in the month owing to revenue shortfall.

The sum of N35.549bn was shared under the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, while N7.617bn was shared from the repayment done by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation for the debt it owed the Federation Account.

Of the statutory revenue, the Federal Government got N246.90bn or 52.68 per cent; states, N125.124bn or 26.72 per cent; while the local governments shared N96.466bn.

Similarly, the sum of N59.152bn was shared to the nine oil producing states based on the 13 per cent principle of derivation.

From VAT revenue, the Federal Government got N7.85bn, representing 15 per cent; the 36 states got N26.194bn or 50 per cent; while the 774 local government areas got N18.336bn or 35 per cent.

Addressing journalists shortly after the meeting, the Minister of State for Finance, Dr Yerima Ngama, said N89.738bn was transferred to the Excess Crude Account, thereby bringing the balance to $5.87bn.

He said the gross revenue of N621.07bn received for April was higher than the N595.70bn received in the previous month by N25.362bn.

This, he noted, was due to increased earnings from domestic crude production and Petroleum Profit Tax.

The minister, however, said the challenges of crude oil production and lifting operation experienced in the previous month persisted.

Also speaking, the Chairman, Finance Commissioners Forum, Mr. Timothy Odaah, called for a more pragmatic approach to revenue generation.

This, he noted, had become imperative due to the challenges of revenue generation.

He also confirmed that the $1bn that was approved for sharing from the Excess Crude Account had been credited to the accounts of the three tiers of government.