The Federal, States and Local Government in October shared N532.7 billion which shows a decline of N25.3 billion when compared to what they shared in September.

Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance, Mr Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, said this on Thursday in Abuja while briefing journalists on the outcome of the monthly Federal Account Allocation Committee, FAAC.

Isa-Dutse attributed the decline to decrease in revenue from export sales of $42.94 million due to a decrease in crude oil production by 1.25 million barrels.

He said even though the average price of crude oil increased from $46.29 per barrel to $48.66 per barrel, it was not enough to make up for the loss in production.

“Some of the issues that impacted negatively on crude oil production were attributed to ageing facilities which resulted to shut-ins and shut-downs of pipelines at various terminals for repairs and maintenance.

“Petroleum Profit Tax increased significantly while Import Duty and Value Added Tax improved only significantly.

“Companies Income Tax and Oil Royalty recorded slight decreases in the month under review,” he said.

In summary, Isa-Dutse said after deductions as cost of collection by FIRS, Customs and DPR, the federal government received N205.7 billion, representing 52.68 per cent; states N104.3 billion, representing 26.72 per cent.

Local governments, he said, received N80.4 billion, amounting to 20.60 per cent of the amount distributed.

Mr. Isa-Dutse announced that N40.8 billion representing 13 per cent derivation revenue was also shared among oil producing states.

He said that the country generated N317.2 billion as mineral revenue and N124.4 billion as non-mineral revenue.
This showed an increase of N41.6 billion from what the country generated as mineral revenue and a decrease of N23.5 billion in non-mineral revenue from what was generated in September.

Meanwhile, Chairman, Commissioners of Finance Forum, Mr Mahmoud Yunusa, apologised for the lateness in holding the meeting, which was supposed to have taken place on November 23.

He said the meeting was cancelled by the state governors due to discrepancies found in revenue figures presented by some of the revenue generating agencies.

Yunusa confirmed that NNPC had increased what they had initially presented to FAAC as what they had generated after the states showed their displeasure.

He said that to avoid such occurrence, states as major stakeholders in NNPC, would henceforth keep “an eagle eye on the affairs of NNPC”.

“Going forward we will be fully involved in what NNPC does to avoid this kind of errors in future. We will scrutinise their books,” he said.

NAN