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Monthly oil revenue drops further by N86.42bn in March

By BusinessNews Staff on April 22, 2015

The country’s monthly revenue prospects further declined by as much as N86.42 billion in March as gross receipts dropped to N315.04 billion compared to N401.46 billion the previous month.

Nevertheless, a total distributable sum of N435.06 billion was monay shared among the three tiers of government for March compared to the N522.05 billion shared in February.

Briefing journalists at the end of the monthly meeting of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) in Abuja, Minister of State for Finance, Alhaji Bashir Yuguda, said the continued shutdown and shut-in of trunks and pipelines at various terminals further impacted negatively on crude oil revenue.

He however noted that an increase in average price of crude oil from $48.34 million to $55.34 million in February boosted revenue by N43.73 million.

Yuguda said non-oil revenue also dipped further in March partly due to the fact that the time frame for companies to file their returns was not due.
Mineral revenue in the period under review dropped to N228.58 billion from N306.94 billion in February, while the non-mineral revenue also declined to N86.46 billion compared to N94.52 billion earned in February.

But revenue from value added tax (VAT) increased by N12.94 billion to N71.19 billion compared to N58.25 billion of the previous month.

Giving a breakdown of the statutory distribution, the minister said the federal government got N146.48 billion, while the states received N74.29 billion as well as the local governments which got N57.28 billion.

The sum of N29.37 billion was also shared among oil producing states under the derivation principle.
For VAT distribution, the federal government received N10.25 billion, while the states got N34.17 billion as well as the local governments which got N23.92 billion.

He said the value of the excess crude account (ECA), which was created to provide succour in rainy days, remained at $2.7 billion.
Also speaking to journalists after the meeting, Chairman, State Commissioners for Finance Forum, Mr. Timothy Odah, described the current revenue performance as “very deplorable situation” and called on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to hasten efforts to refund the $1.48 billion it is required to remit to the federation account as demanded by the recent audit report by Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC).

He said a timely refund would help the states cushion the impact of the current fiscal crisis as well as pay a backlog of workers’ salaries as further delay could be disruptive.

He added that a committee had already been constituted to work with the NNPC in order to fast-track the refund and determine how it would be shared before the end of the current administration.

He said the current situation had become alarming, adding that it was no longer an issue of waiting for payment alerts from the federation coffers but a call to boost other sources of revenue apart from oil.

[ThisDay]

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