The Minister of State for Finance, Mr Bashir Yuguda, on Friday, said N388 billion was shared among the federal, states and local governments as revenue for April 2015.
Yuguda announced this in Abuja when he addressed newsmen on the outcome of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.
He said that the shared amount comprised the month’s statutory revenue of N282 billion and N6.3 billion refunded by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). “Also, there is the exchange gain of N24.7 billion which is proposed for distribution, therefore, the total revenue distributable for the month of April, including VAT of N75.1 billion, is N388 billion.” The amount shared for the month was N47 billion less than what was shared in the preceding month. Giving the breakdown of revenue among the three tiers of government, Yuguda said the Federal Government received N132.1 billion, representing 52.68 per cent; states, N67 billion, representing 26.72 per cent.
The local governments, he said, received N51.6 billion, amounting to 20.60 per cent of the amount distributed. He announced that N23.1 billion representing 13 per cent derivation revenue was shared among the oil producing states.
On VAT, he said that the gross revenue collected for the month increased by N3.9 billion from the N71.1 billion recorded in February. Yuguda said N180.4 billion was generated as mineral revenue in April as against the N228.5 billion generated in the preceding month. According to him, this shows a decrease of N48.1 billion between the two months. He said that the non-mineral revenue for April was N101.5 billion, which when compared to the N86.4 billion generated in March, showed an increase of N15 billion. The minister said the revenue generation for the month was low, explaining certain reasons for it. He added that “the continued shut down and shut in of trucks and pipelines at various terminals continued to impact negatively on crude oil revenue. “However, an increase in the average price of crude oil from 55.3 U.S. dollars in February to 56 U.S. dollars in March brought about 21.6 million U.S. dollars gain in revenue. “Also, non oil revenue performed better in April than in March 2015.”
The Chairman, Finance Commissioners Forum, Mr Timothy Odah, expressed concern over the low revenue generated for the month. He said “the country is facing serious financial and economic crisis. “The Excess Crude Account is depleted already, and you are aware that we had earlier resolved that there should be a stop on the use of ECA to augment what the three tiers of government share monthly. “So, the ECA is currently depleted and it has gone beyond the level that we can get anything reasonable from it.” Odah criticised states that were owing salaries, saying the governors of those states should have made the payment of salaries their top priority after collecting their monthly statutory allocation.
NAN reports that this is the last FAAC meeting which revenue will be shared under President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
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