EXCESS CRUDE CASH SHRINKS TO $5.1BN

Reserves in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) shrunk to $5.1 billion following the withdrawal of N115 billion from it to augment revenue shortfall for the July Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursements to the federal, states and local governments.

Minister of State for Finance Dr. Yerima Lawan Ngama told reporters after a belated FAAC meeting in Abuja yesterday that it became necessary to draw from the ECA because of a massive drop in revenue from N863.026 billion received in June 2013 to N497.984 billion in July.

Ngama attributed the fall in revenue to continuous theft of crude oil, leakages, pipeline vandalism at various terminals, HP compressor failure and repair work.

Another reason the minister gave is the downward review of some companies’ estimates and a judgment debt by the Tax Appeal Tribunal on Education Tax, which reduced the Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) paid into the Federation Account for the month.

Also, mineral revenue for July was put at N361.935 billion, representing a shortage of N136.122 billion from the N465.057 billion budgeted for the month.

Civil servants in both federal and state employments may have to wait a little longer to get paid this month because, as the minister explained, the lateness in holding the July FAAC meeting was due to the National Council of Finance and Economic Development (NACOFED) meeting, which took place earlier in the month in Minna, the Niger State capital.

For last month, total revenue distributable for the month, including Value Added Tax (VAT), is N715.845 billion.

From this, the net statutory revenue available for distribution after payment of collection costs to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), both of which received N4.1 billion and N2.3 billion respectively, was put at N477.049 billion, representing a N113.457 billion shortfall.

From this amount, the Federal Government got N227.516 billion, States,  N145.39 billion while local governments went away with N88.96 billion.

The sum of N45.1 billion was shared to oil and gas producing states as derivation fund.

For the VAT distribution, the federal government got N10.6 billion; states, N35.6 billion; andlocal governments, N24.9 billion.

Also distributed was the N7.617 billion Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) indebtedness to the federation account as well as N35.549 billion under the Subsidy-Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P).

Source: The Nation