The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mrs Anastasia Nwaobia, on Wednesday said that N389.9 billion was shared among the federal, states and local governments as revenue for September, 2015.
Nwaobia announced this in Abuja when she addressed newsmen on the outcome of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.
She said that the shared amount comprised the month’s net statutory revenue of N321.9 billion.
“Also, there is the exchange gain of N5.2 billion which is proposed for distribution.
“Therefore the total revenue distributable for the month of August including VAT of N56.3 billion, is N389.9 billion,” she said.
Nwaobia said N6.3 billion was refunded to the federation by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and was also proposed for sharing.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that N422.6 billion was shared to the three tiers of government as revenue for the preceding month. This shows a difference of N52.6 billion.
Giving the breakdown of revenue among the three tiers of government, Nwaobia said the Federal Government received N151.3 billion, representing 52.68 per cent; states, N76.8 billion, representing 26.72 per cent.
The local governments, she said, received N59.1 billion, amounting to 20.60 per cent of the amount distributed.
Nwaobia announced that N27.5 billion, representing 13 per cent derivation revenue, was shared among the oil producing states.
On VAT, she said that the N62.1 billion collected for the month showed a decrease of N12.7 billion from what was collected in the preceding month.
She said that the country generated N213.1 billion as mineral revenue and N108.8 billion as non-mineral revenue.
She noted that this showed a decrease of N2.8 billion and N44.2 billion, respectively, from what the country generated as mineral and non-mineral revenue in the preceding month.
She puts the balance in the Excess Crude Account as at today, at 2.25billion dollars, which showed that nothing had been removed or added to it since July.
Nwaobia lamented over the low revenue generation for the month, while explaining certain reasons for it.
“Revenue from crude oil and gas export was negatively impacted in August 2015 due to shut down and shut in of production for maintenance at different periods and terminals during the month.
“Also there was revenue loss of 32 million dollars as a result of drop in average price of crude oil from 56.7 dollars in July to 47.3 dollars in August 2015.
“The current revenue challenge was further worsened with a decline of over N44 billion in non-oil revenue collections,” she said.
On states bailout, Nwaobia said that it was not meant to solve all state’s problems but to give them some relief so that they would be able to settle the salaries of their workers.
“On the issue of the revenue dropping I think we are worried about it. If we say we are not worried about it we will be lying.
“However, it is not an issue that is restricted to this country. Almost all economies of the world are facing difficulties. It is how you manage your situation that matters.
“Government is aware of these challenges and reforms are being undertaken and the impact of these reforms don’t come as quickly as we expect but with time they will begin to manifest.
“We are looking at the mining sector and agriculture to see the impact of various inputs that have been put into the sector. We are indeed worried but we are working it out and we will soon begin to see results,” she said.
Nwaobia said that the Federal Government has raised capital votes for two quarters. She said for the first quarter, almost all the MDAs had received their capital votes. (NAN)
