FG sends N668.8bn May allocation to states, LGs

FOR the first time ever, the Federal Government has bypassed Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) in the distribution of revenue allocation to states.

Accruals into the federation account through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for May 2018 has been rejected by FAAC three times in the last one month, while two meetings of the National Economic Council (NEC) also failed to resolve the crisis.

As of Thursday, the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum, Govenor Abdulazeez Yari of Zamfara State told reporters that states and local governments were not ready to share the May 2018 allocation until the NNPC was able to transparently explain its accounting processes.

He accused the corporation of unilaterally deciding how much it will remit to the federation after deducting what it likes for all manner of unapproved expenses.

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However, in a sudden statement on Friday afternoon by Director of Information to Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr Hassan Dodo, the  Federal Government said it had decided to disburse N668.898 to the three tiers of government and other revenue generating agencies.

According to him, “owing to disagreement on remittances by the Revenue Generating Agencies, especially the NNPC, the sharing of revenues for May 2018 that was meant to be distributed in June 2018, was put on hold.

“However, the urgent need to cushion the undue hardships being experienced by workers nationwide made it necessary to distribute the May figures totalling N668.898 billion to the three tiers of government, while efforts are being intensified to address the unsatisfactory remittances.

“The N668.898 billion is made up of statutory distributable sum of N575.475 billion and N 93.423 billion from the value added tax (VAT).

“The total revenue realised for the month, was shared in line with the extant formula as follows: Federal Government – N282.223  billion; state governments – N181.167 billion; and local government councils – N136.490 billion.

“Oil producing states received N53.071 billion as 13 per cent derivation.

“The sum of N15.947 billion was paid to the revenue generating agencies as costs of collections.

“The statutory revenue of N575.475 billion received for the month of May 2018 was lower than the N613.057 billion received for April 2018 by a total of N37.582 billion.”

“From total statutory revenue of N575.475 billion, Federal Government was given N268.770 billion; states – N136.324 billion; local government areas – N105.100 billion; oil producing states – N53.071 billion, and the revenue generating agencies received N12.210 billion as costs of collections.

“For the month of May 2018, the total revenue of N93.423 billion from the value added tax (VAT) was N5.458 billion higher than the N87.965 billion distributed in April 2018.

“From the total of N93.423 billion, Federal Government received N13.453 billion; states received N44.843 billion; local government councils received N31.390 billion, while N3.737 billion was received by the revenue collecting agencies,” the statement stated.