The distributable revenue available for sharing by the three tiers of government in Nigeria dipped by 11 per cent this month, endangering the capacity of state governments to pay their workers.
Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, on Thursday in Abuja said that N443.6 billion was shared among the Federal, States and Local Governments.
The amount is 11 per cent less than the N559 billion that was distributed in July.She blames this reduction on activities of the vandals in Niger Delta.
Adeosun, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr Mahmoud Isa-Dutse announced this while addressing newsmen on the outcome of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.
“The distributable statutory revenue for the month is N268.7 billion. The sum of N6.3 billion was refunded to the federation account by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
“There is a distribution of N1.3 billion excess bank charges recovered from 2008 to 2012.
“Also, there was the exchange gain of N70 billion and N36.4 billion arrears for May which were also proposed for distribution.
“Therefore the total revenue distributable for the month of April, including VAT of N66.9 billion, is N443.6 billion,’’ she said.
Giving the breakdown of revenue among the three tiers of government, Adeosun said the Federal Government received N129.2 billion, representing 52.68 per cent while states got N65.5billion, representing 26.72 per cent.
The local governments, she said, received N50.5 billion, amounting to 20.60 per cent of the amount distributed.
She said N12.8 billion, representing 13 per cent derivation revenue was shared among the oil producing states.
Adeosun also said that during the month under review, the country generated N119.4 billion as mineral revenue and N168.4 billion as non-mineral revenue, showing a decrease of N250.9 billion from both sources.
The minister also said that the Excess Crude Account stood at 3.03 billion dollars.
She explained that the main cause of the decline in revenue was mainly attributable to the reduction in the quantity of petroleum sold due to the activities of vandals in the Niger Delta.
Adeosun also said that Lagos state had not started receiving the 13 per cent derivation from the sale of crude oil.
“Lagos state has not started receiving the 13 per cent derivation because the money has not started coming in yet, it is after the actual export that the money would be realised and it would be given the derivation.’’
