Chairman of the forum and Ebonyi State Finance Commissioner, Mr. Timothy Odaah, said the states have never had it this bad this year with the sharing of N568.413 billion by the three tiers of government.
January was the last time the three tiers of government shared revenue as low as N575.46 compared to other months of the year.
Minister of State for Finance, Dr Yerima Lawan Ngama, who addressed journalists after the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting yesterday in Abuja, said $3.598 billion is left in the Excess Crude Account after the withdrawal of the $1 billion.
A breakdown of the Net Statutory Allocation of N453.006 billion distributed to the three tiers of government indicated that the Federal Government received N213.825 billion (representing 52.68 per cent); states N108.455 billion (26.72 per cent) while Local Governments got N83.614 billion (20.60 per cent). N47.112 billion went to oil producing states as 13 per cent derivation.
Out of the N63.692 billion generated from Value Added Tax, Federal Government received N9.558 billion; states got N31.846 billion and Local Governments N22.292 billion.
He added that the flagging revenues should be a wake-up call for the states, local governments and families to start looking for alternative means of revenue.
The government has severally blamed the shortfalls in revenue to slight decline in crude oil production as a result of force majeure declared at oil terminals, maintenance issues and theft.
The consequence of the shortfall had forced government to share revenue on the basis of the actual amount earned rather than what was budgeted.
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had in one of her media appearances expressed fear over government’s dwindling revenues caused by pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft in the Niger Delta.
She said if the trend continued, government might find it difficult meeting its monthly obligations by not being able to pay workers’ salaries.
Source: Daily Trust
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