Despite the drop in oil revenues amid the ravaging impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) on Wednesday shared N780.9 billion to the three tiers of government for March 2020.

This was confirmed in a statement from office of Accountant-General of the Federation at the end of the virtual FAAC meeting of representatives of federal, states and local governments, along with Federal Capital Territory.

Others who participated in the online meeting included representatives of all the revenue-generating agencies, namely Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Details of the revenue distribution were contained in a Statement of Accounts by FAAC in Abuja.

A total of N780.926 billion shared during the meeting consisted statutory revenue, Value Added Tax (VAT), and foreign exchange gain, with the balance of the Excess Crude Revenue Account (ECA) currently at about $72.2 million.

Gross statutory revenue for March 2020, the Committee said, was N597.7 billion, which is higher than the N466.1 billion received in February by N131.6 billion.

Gross revenue realised from Value Added Tax (VAT) was about N120.3 billion against N99.6 billion in February 2020, an increase of about N20.7 billion.

A total of N62.9 billion was realized from Exchange Gain for the month.

A breakdown of the allocations showed that federal government received the largest share of about N264.3 billion, state governments N181.5 billion, and local government councils N135.9 billion.

Oil-producing states were given N38.8 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue for the month, while the cost of revenue collection by revenue agencies and allocation to NEDC was N160.4 billion.

In addition, federal government received N217.8 billion out of the gross statutory revenue of N597.7 billion against about N110.5 billion received by state governments and N85.2 billion by the local government councils.

N32.3 billion was given to the relevant states as 13 per cent derivation revenue and N152 billion as cost of revenue collection by revenue agencies and allocation to NEDC.

Federal government got N16.7 billion from Value Added Tax (VAT), with state governments receiving N55.9 billion, local councils N39.1 billion, while the cost of collection by revenue agencies and allocation to NEDC was N8.4 billion.

A further share of about N29.8 billion was paid to federal government, state governments N15.1 billion, the councils N11.6 billion and oil-producing states N6.4 billion from the N63 billion available from Exchange Gain.

For the month, the Committee said Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Companies Income Tax(CIT), Import and Excise Duties, Oil and Gas Royalties and Value Added Tax (VAT) all recorded substantial increases.

Impact of coronavirus

Following the breakout of the coronavirus pandemic, crude oil exports, which has been the major source of financing for FAAC has dwindled, amid declining oil prices at the international oil market.

Meeting of the committee for February ended in a stalemate following the rejection of the revenue presented by the revenue agencies for sharing.

FAAC members considered the revenue presented for that month as grossly below the threshold for the revenue agreed by members in December 2018.

To salvage the situation, National Economic Council approved that Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) should make available about $150 million from the Stabilisation Fund to support FAAC to meet its obligations from June this year.

With the balance in the excess crude oil revenue account dropping to $72.2 million, the future looks challenging for the government as the pandemic bites harder on the world economy.

PT