Again, Revenue Underpayment Stalls Allocation to States

• Again, Revenue Underpayment Stalls Allocation to States

For the fourth time this year, the Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting, which was convened on Wednesday to consider and approve statutory allocation for the month of May, was postponed as a result of revenue discrepancies.

The committee had convened at the headquarters of the Ministry of Finance in Abuja to receive submissions from revenue-generating agencies such as the Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Following submissions by the revenue-generating agencies, it was learnt that members of the committee were not satisfied with the revenue remittance by the NNPC.

The meeting is usually chaired by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun.

Other members of the committee are the Accountant General of the Federation, commissioners for finance in the 36 states, and representatives of revenue-generating agencies.

Speaking on the development in an interview with our correspondent, one of the members of the committee described the postponement of the meeting as unfortunate.

The official, who pleaded not to be named as he was not officially permitted to speak on the matter, said the NNPC had not been honouring its statutory obligation to the Federation Account.

He stated that the inability of the NNPC to generate and remit accurate revenue to the Federation Account had been a major cause for concern for the committee.

He added that the commissioners for finance had decided to report the current development to their respective state governors for further action.

The source explained, “We have some challenges; the figure we have got is far less than what was expected to be remitted by the NNPC.

“In view of the current revenue challenges, it has become imperative for the corporation to become more transparent in how it runs its operations.”

The Chairman, Forum of Finance Commissioners of FAAC, Mahmoud Yunusa, declined to speak on the matter when asked for a comment.

But the Director of Information, Ministry of Finance, Mr Hassan Dodo, said the meeting would be reconvened before the end of the week.