The nation’s federally collected revenue recorded an appreciation, occasioned by rise in oil earnings and other sources in August, leading to the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, sharing N637. 7 billion, among the three tiers of government, yesterday.

This amount was made up of a statutory distributable revenue of N550.992 billion and Value Added Tax, VAT, revenue of N86.712 billion.

The breakdown of the allocations showed that Federal Government received N273.095 billion; state governments, N173.806 billion, and local governments got N131.044 billion.

Oil producing states received N41.977 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue, while revenue generating agencies were given N17.782 billion as cost of collection.

Briefing newsmen after the FAAC meeting in Abuja, Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, said the gross statutory revenue for August 2017 was N550.992 billion, as against N387.319 billion received in July, indicating an increase of N163.673 billion.

The AGF said revenue from VAT for August 2017 was N86.712 billion, against N80.533 billion in July 2017, an increase of N6.179 billion.

He said Companies Income and Petroleum Profit Taxes as well as Import and Excise Duties also recorded significant increases.

According to him, the country recorded an increase of $41 million in crude oil sales notwithstanding the decrease in the average price of crude oil from $51.05 to $50.44 per barrel in the month under review.

This increase, according to him, resulted largely from the significant increase in export volume by 0.85 million barrels.

Idris explained that the perennial challenges of shut-ins and shut-downs at Terminals due to leakages and the subsisting Force Majeure declared at Forcados Terminal since February 2016 had minimal negative impact on crude oil operations during the period.

Vanguard