Tanker vessel
By James Emejo
A decrease in crude oil production and lifting operations occasioned by the force majure that was declared at the Bonny Terminal last month lowered gross federally-collected revenue for August by as much N260.512 billion.
The Minister of State for Finance, Alhaji Yerima Ngama, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja while briefing journalists at the end of the monthly meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee.
According to the minister, gross revenue for August dropped to N564.884 billion, compared to N825.396 billion in July.
Other factors like the shutdown of Balema Gas Plant and Trans Niger Pipeline as well as decline in Production Sharing Contract (PSC) and Modified Carry Arrangement (MCA) were also identified as contributory factors to the drop in revenue for August.
As a result, FAAC withdrew N26.214 billion from the Excess Crude Account to shore up revenue for August.
Ngama also said that N124.092 billion was transferred to the ECA in August, thus bringing its current value to about $8.2 billion.
Total distributable revenue of N527.443 billion was shared among the three tiers of government for August.
Ngama disclosed that N99 billion had so far been remitted to the federation account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation from its N450 billion indebtedness.
The minister was represented at yesterday's meeting by the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Jonah Otunla.
A rundown of the statutory allocation shared among the tiers showed that the federal government received N206.726 billion while the states shared N104.854 billion.
The local governments shared N80.838 billion while N42.608 was earmarked for distribution to mineral producing states under the derivation formula.
According to the minister, distributable revenue for the month stood at N440.792 billion.
He added that N35.549 billion was also proposed for sharing under the Subsidy Re-Investment Programme (SURE-P).
Also distributed was the N7.617 billion monthly refund by NNPC.
Gross revenue from VAT increased by N6.527 billion to N60.437 billion in August, compared to N53.910 billion in July.
Of the total revenue from VAT, the federal government received N8.703 billion (15 per cent) while the states shared N29.010 billion (50 per cent). Local governments shared N20.307 billion.