Hope rises for workers, as states get Paris Club refund final tranche, November allocation

HAPPY times appear to have arrived for state governments and their workers, as the final tranche of Paris Club debt deduction refund hit their accounts at the same time with November allocations from the Federation Account.

Director, Home Finance, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Olubunmi Siyanbola, told reporters shortly after the conclusion of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting, held on Saturday, in Abuja, that as of Thursday, 27 out of 36 states had been credited with the balance of the refund.

According to her, “Accounts of the remaining nine states will be credited with their portion as soon as all necessary processes are concluded.”

Earlier during the briefing, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris, announced that a total of N609.959 billion was shared among the three tiers of government after deductions for cost of collection due to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

But other sources informed Sunday Tribune that total funds available for distribution during the month was N594,839,009,174.73 made up of mineral revenue (oil, gas and solid) FIRS and Customs revenue, as well as value added tax.

Idris said there was a decrease in revenue from export sales of $69.49 million due to decrease in crude oil production by 1.75 million barrels.

“However, the average price of crude oil increased from $48.66 to $52.07 per barrel”, he explained while attributing decrease in oil production to maintenance, sabotage and a brief Force Majeure declared at Bonny Terminal.

“There were also remarkable increases in revenues from Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Import Duty, Companies Income Tax (CIT), Royalty and Value Added Tax (VAT),” he said.

Speaking on the Excess Crude Account (ECA), Idris said there was a balance of $2.317 billion as of December 15, 2017 while the excess Petroleum Profit Tax account had $133 million as of that date.

The Accountant-General said that although the National Economic Council (NEC) approved the disbursement of $1 billion to be taken from the ECA to finance the Boko Haram war, the actual mandate for the deduction had not been issued to him as of Saturday, hence the available balance.

He stated that there was no need to seek approval of the National Assembly before the $1 billion would be approved for withdrawal, because the money is jointly owned by federal, states and local governments and since the owners agreed to spend it, that should be it.

He also dismissed the public objections being raised by Ekiti State governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, as an after-thought.

Idris said that the decision to spend the money on the fight against Boko Haram was unanimously taken at the NEC meeting, saying that “anybody who was not pleased with it ought to have raised such objection at the meeting.”

He stated that there had not been significant increase in ECA for many months, because though oil prices had been rising, the total distributable funds had been generally low.

The marginal increase in the account was because of accrued interests, he stated.

Also speaking, the chairman of the Finance Commissioners’ Forum, Mahmoud Yunusa, expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the FAAC meeting for the month, saying it was better than that of November.

Yunusa who is Commissioner for Finance, Adamawa State said “we are ok although we still expect things to be better. With what transpired, we will be able to pay salaries.”