The Federal Government withdrew N64.63bn from the excess crude oil revenue account to meet the agreed monthly minimum amount shared among the three tiers of government in September. With the withdrawal, the monthly minimum revenue to be shared by the federal, states and local governments of N313bn was achieved, according to the acting Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. D.I. Kifasi.

The withdrawal was made on Friday after the monthly meeting of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee where the acting AGF explained that the drawdown was made to meet a shortfall in federal revenue.

A benchmark of N313bn had been set by the FAAC for distribution every month among the three tiers, failing which, the shortfall is to be made up from the domestic crude oil account. FAAC which is chaired by the Minister of State for Finance, is made up of Commissioners for Finance in the 36 states of federation. The AGF; the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation; the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Nigerian Customs Services are also represented in the body.

Although a total of N341.83bn was generated in September, only N245.64bn was available for distribution, of which N92.96bn was transferred to the excess crude account. Four per cent cost of collection, amounting to N1.42bn, was paid to the Federal Inland Revenue Services, while another seven per cent cost of collection amounting to N1.81bn was paid to the Nigerian Customs Services.

These deductions left the Federation Account with N245.64bn that had to be augmented with N64.63bn for distribution among the three tiers of government.
The amount available for sharing was again boosted with N33.03bn from the Value Added Tax.
This brought the total amount shared for the month of September to N341.98bn from the domestic excess crude account.

The Federal Government received N116.56bn; the states governments received N59.12bn while the local governments got N45.58bn. The 13 per cent derivation amounted to N24.37bn shared among the oil-producing states.

From VAT, the Federal Government got N4.76bn; the states governments N15.86bn and the local governments received N11.09bn.

source: The Punch