THE STALEMATE that followed last week’s Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting may have been settled, with
the announcement of the sharing of about N581.566 billion among the three tiers
of government viz., the Federal, States and Local Governments for February
2020.
The decision was announced at the end of
the rescheduled meeting of the FAAC held in Abuja on Monday.
A communique issued by the Office of the
Accountant General of the Federation on the behalf of the FAAC said the
N581.566 billion comprised Statutory Revenue, Value Added Tax (VAT), Exchange
Gain, and revenue from Forex Equalization Account.
The communique said the balance in the
Excess Crude revenue Account (ECA) stood at about $72.221 million.
Details of the allocations showed gross
statutory revenue for the month of February 2020 was about N466.058 billion.
This was lower by N59.195 billion than
the N525.253 billion received in January 2020.
Also, for the month, the gross revenue
available from the VAT was about N99.552 billion as against N104.758 billion in
the previous month, a decrease of N5.206 billion.
Exchange Gain yielded a total revenue of
about N757 million, and revenue from Foreign exchange Equalization Account was
about N15.199 billion.
The Accountant General of the
Federation, Ahmed Idris, said from the total revenue of N581.566 billion, the
Federal Government received N236.118 billion, the State Governments N159.010
billion, and the Local Government Councils N119.305 billion.
The Oil Producing States received
N45.310 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue and the Revenue Generating
Agencies N21.822 billion as cost of revenue collection.
A breakdown of the distribution showed
that from the gross statutory revenue of N466.058 billion, the Federal
Government received N214.915 billion, the State Governments N109.008 billion
and the Local Government Councils N84.040 billion.
The Oil Producing States received
N43.242 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue and the Revenue Generating
Agencies received N14.853 billion as the cost of collection.
From the VAT revenue of N99.552 billion,
the Federal Government received N13.888 billion, the State Governments N46.292
billion, the Local Government Councils N32.404 billion and the Revenue
Generating Agencies received N6.969 billion as cost of revenue collection.
The Exchange Gain revenue was
N757million and the Federal Government received N350 million, the State
Governments N178 million, the Local Government Councils N137 million and the
Oil Producing States received N92 million.
The foreign exchange equalization
account revenue was N15.199 billion, with the Federal Government receiving
N6.966 billion, the State Governments N3.533 billion, the Local Government
Councils N2.724 billion and the Oil Producing States received N1.976 billion
The communique confirmed that in the
month of February 2020, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Companies Income Tax (CIT),
Import and Excise Duties, Oil and Gas Royalties and Value Added Tax (VAT) all
recorded a substantial decline.
Last Tuesday, the
meeting of the Committee failed to reach a consensus on the amount to be shared
for the month.
On Wednesday, the FAAC met in Abuja for
the sharing of the statutory allocation of revenues between the three tiers of
government for the month of February.
The meeting, attended by the Finance
Commissioners and Accountants General of the 36 States of the Federation, their
Federal Government counterparts and the Federal Capital Territory rejected the
amount presented for sharing by the revenue-generating agencies.
Consequently, the meeting ended abruptly
without a resolution. The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning,
Zainab Ahmed, who presided over the meeting was however mandated to take the
matter before the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting for further deliberation
and resolution.
The NEC meeting ended
without any information about a decision on the matter as FAAC mandated. It was,
however, learned that the Minister was authorized to reconvene the FAAC for a
second look at the revenue proposal in view of the poor revenue accrual from
oil export, as a result of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Based on this, it was learned, the
representatives of the states had no option than to accept what was presented,
despite that it was far below the benchmark revenue approved last year.
A special FAAC Committee had recommended in its
report on the guidelines on transfers into and withdrawals from the accounts
the minimum amount to be shared every month and the transfer to the excess
crude oil account.
In the report, the committee recommended
that any month where the net distributable revenues available for sharing by
the federal, states and local governments from the Federation Account falls
below N680 billion, funds should be withdrawn from the ECA to augment the
shortfall to at least N680 billion.
On the other hand, where the net
distributable revenue is between N680 billion and N730 billion, up to about N50
billion should be transferred into the ECA as saving.
Besides, if the net distributable
revenue for the month is between N730 billion and N830 billion, the committee
recommended that up to about N100 billion should be transferred to the ECA, or
a minimum of N150 billion, if the figure is above N830 billion.
With oil revenues shrinking to the
barest minimum following the impact of the coronavirus on oil exports, it was
learned that what was presented for sharing by the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) and other revenue agencies for sharing was far below their
usual benchmark amount.
On Monday, crude oil price crashed to
about $25 per barrels, the lowest level in 16 years, as global markets
continued to grapple with the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on
the global economy.
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