By Gift Samuel
Abuja-The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has distributed the sum of N415.730 billion to the Federal, State and Local Government Areas as the total revenue distributable for the Month of April 2017.
The total revenue distributable for the current month is against the previous month figure of N467.807 billion, giving a negative variance of N52.077 billion Naira.
Disclosing this to News men after the FAAC meeting, the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris who chaired the meeting, noted that in the distribution, the Federal government received N163.899 billion, state N117.590, local government N87.773 and the sum of N29.831 was 13 per cent mineral revenue derivation for oil producing states.
Also there was cost of collection and FIRS refund of N16.528 and the sum of N0.109 as Transfer to Lagos state, bringing the Grand total to N415.730 billion as NNPC refunded N6.330 billion to the federal government.
He noted that the gross revenue available from the Value Added Tax(VAT) was N84.673 billion as against N78.651 billion distributed in the preceding month, resulting in an increase of N6.022 billion which was distributed thus; Federal Government N12.193 billion, State N40.643 billion, local government N28.450 and N3.387 billion was less 4% cost of collection, resulting in a total of N81.286 billion.
He further said that the gross statutory revenue of N274.110 billion received for the month was lower than the N331.583 billion received in the previous month by N57.473 billion.
According to him; “There was significant increase in Export Sales Revenue by about $63.69 million due to the increase in the average price of crude oil from $52.86 to $55.38 per barrel and a rise in crude oil volume by 1.07 million barrels. Despite the improvement, production still suffered the perennial setbacks.
“The distributable statutory revenue for the month is N272.115 billion. The balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) as at May 23, 2017 was $2.299 billion as well as a balance of $67 million in Petroleum Profit Tax(PPT) Excess Account as at May 23, 2017” he added.
The AGF stressed that there is a bright future for Nigeria despite the shortfall this month,adding that Nigeria is getting better as he expressed hopes for greater and better performances from all revenue generating agencies in the coming months.
In his remark, the Chairman, Honourable Commissioners Forum, Mr Mahmood Yunusa stated that based on projections, Nigeria is almost out of recession, adding that despite the dependence of state for revenue from the federal government, a lot of states have improved on their internally generated revenue.
