N463.779 billion was shared among the three tiers of government as statutory fund, N65.102 billion from Value Added Tax (VAT), N30 billion as additional distribution from NNPC, N35.549 billion from SURE-P and N6.330 as NNPC refund to the federal government.
Also shared was the N2.76 billion initially meant for transfer to the Excess Crude Account (ECA).
The gross revenue of N502.09 billion received for the month was lower than the N601.65 billion received in the previous month. The further decline in mineral revenue was attributed to the slight decrease in the crude oil prices and production loss due to shut-in and shut down of trunk lines and pipelines at various terminals.
The federal and state governments were locked in fierce negotiations on what to share for the month of September from the federation account with the state governments forcing the sharing of N2.7 billion meant for saving in the ECA.
Midway into the negotiations, state commissioners of finance trooped out of the auditorium of the federal ministry of finance venue of the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja to huddle together and review the offer brought to the table for sharing.
The major issues responsible for the disagreement was the outstanding debt owed by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the Federation Account and what to do with the proceeds of the Excess Crude Account (ECA).
LEADERSHIP gathered that the meeting was deadlocked when the amount proposed for sharing was considered too low and unacceptable to the states and that they were prepared to reject the figure from the federal government.
It was furthered confirmed to that the sum of N2.7 billion from the ECA generated a lot of debate with the federal government team led by the minister of state for finance Ambassador Bashir Yuguda canvassing for “the no-sharing option based on the view that the country’s savings should be beefed to mitigate any likely shocks on the economy.”
However, the states led by their commissioners of finance opposed moving the amount into ECA on the grounds that their state governments needed more funds to execute various projects and programmes as well as pay civil servants. But the state government had their way. By this development, the sum of $4.1 billion is now left in the ECA.
The state governments also demanded for full disclosure of the activities the NNPC especially how much had been transferred to the Federation Account.
A the end of a long drawn out meeting the minister of state for finance addressed journalists on the what was shared for the month of September.
Source: Leadership
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