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Government records N103bn shortfall in revenue allocation

By on December 24, 2015

Statutory allocation to the three tiers of government witnessed a decline of N103.95bn in the month of November from the sum of N473.83bn distributed in October to N369.88bn

The decline was confirmed by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, while briefing journalists on Tuesday night shortly after this month’s Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meeting.

The meeting, which was attended by all the commissioners of Finance from the 36 states of the federation, was held at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja.

The minister said the N369.88bn available for distribution for the month was realised from four major sources.

They are statutory revenue, N297.45bn; Value Added Tax, N61.18bn; exchange gain, N4.92bn; and refund made by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation for debt owed the Federation Account, N6.33bn.

From the statutory revenue of N297.45bn, the minister said the Federal Government, after deducting the cost of collection to the Nigerian Customs Service and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, received the sum of N139.5bn; the states, N70.76bn; and local governments, N54.55bn.

Similarly, the sum of N25.6bn was allocated to the oil producing states based on the 13 per cent derivation principle.

For VAT revenue, she said after deducting cost of collection, the Federal Government got N8.8bn; the states, N29.36bn; and local governments, N20.55bn.

Adeosun attributed the decline in allocation to reduction in revenue, which was caused by shutdown and shut-in in crude oil production at various terminals during the period.

She said even though the oil revenue was currently down, non-oil revenue was beginning to make up for the shortfall.

The minister stated, “The gross statutory revenue of N297.45bn received in the month was lower than the N400.3bn received in the previous month by N102.86bn. Ongoing maintenance and the shutdown and shut-in of production for repairs at different terminals during the month continued to impact crude oil and gas revenue negatively.

“Non-oil is beginning to play its part and that is a very positive sign, and I think that is something we should work together with by making sure that people paid their taxes and improve revenue collection.”

Apart from repairs and maintenance of oil and gas facilities, a communique issued after the meeting stated that there was also a revenue loss of $19.43m as a result of reduction in export earnings even though the average price of crude oil increased from $46.96 in September to $49.58 in October.

The communique added that non-oil revenue also decreased by N114.2bn in November in comparison to the previous month.

Asked whether it would be possible for workers to get their salaries before Christmas with the late approval of the November allocation, Adeosun said, “Salaries are being paid now as we speak and people are already getting alerts.

“We are very conscious of the need that people are paid in time for the festive season.”

On the Excess Crude Account, the minister put the balance at $2.58bn as of December 22, stating that the amount remained unchanged from the balance in November.

[Punch]