The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), yesterday, met in Abuja to disburse ₦741.843 billion among tiers of government from revenue generated in August.
The meeting is a monthly tradition of the committee to discuss revenue generated, the basis of distribution among other issues that border on its jurisdiction. The meeting which should have been chaired by the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, had the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Mahmoud Isa-Dutse in charge. It was reported that the Minister is away on other statutory assignment.
Isa-Dutse, while sharing with newsmen the statistics for the previous month at the end of the FAAC meeting, read that ₦741.843 billion was appended for disbursement.
Shedding more light on the figures, the Permanent Secretary noted that the amount received as gross statutory revenue was ₦627.139 billion, this is an up from ₦609.975 billion received in the previous month by ₦17.164 billion.
Total shareable revenue of ₦741.843 billion is an addendum of statutory revenue of ₦627.139 billion: gross Value Added Tax of ₦114.542 billion and an exchange gain of ₦162 million.
The allocation received is an increment compared to the preceding month. This was made possible by the significant appreciation in oil price and production in the international market.
The net statutory revenue was shared in the ratio of 52.68%:26.72%:20.60% between the Federal, State and Local Government respectively. The upper tier obviously received the lion share by value (₦274.889 billion), state (₦139.427 billion), local government (₦107.493 billion). Oil-producing states gulped up ₦53.034 billion.
Value Added Tax distribution is distributed thus: the Federal Government received ₦16.494 billion (15 per cent); states got ₦54.981 billion, amounting to 50% while the local governments got ₦38.486 billion 35%.
The revenue upsurge necessitated the need to save up ₦40 billion in the Excess Crude Allocation, bringing total in that account as at September 25, 2018, to $2.468 billion, while the balance in Excess Petroleum Profit Tax as at the same date is $0.133 billion.
Also at the event, the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris spoke on civil servant’s salary which he said would be paid in timely fashion as it is the custom of the administration.
He said
“… as I am sitting here, I have just finalised the cash plan for salaries, it is a matter of IT (Information Technology) application.”
Meanwhile, the organised NLC has commenced a nationwide strike today, Thursday.