FG, States, LGs Record N43bn Shortfall in Allocation

• FG, States, LGs Record N43bn Shortfall in Allocation

The Federation Account Allocation Committee on Thursday night distributed N698.71bn to the three tiers of government as September allocation.

The amount represents a decline of N43.13bn over the N741.84bn shared in August.

The amount was shared at the FAAC meeting, which was presided over by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed.

A breakdown of the amount showed that after deducting the cost of collection to the revenue generating agencies, the Federal Government got N300.1bn; the states, N184.43bn; while the Local Government Councils got N139bn.

The committee also allocated the sum of N59.09bn to the oil producing states based on the derivation principle of 13 per cent.

A communiqué issued after the meeting, which was signed by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, put the gross statutory revenue for the month of September at N569.28bn.

This, it stated, was N57.85bn lower than the N627.13bn realised in August.

The communiqué read in part, “Crude oil export sales increased by 0.17 million barrels, resulting in increased revenue to the federation of $8.48m. However, the average unit price dropped from $77.10 to $75.69. There was shutdown of (crude oil) pipelines, which resulted in shut-in of production at the various pipelines.

“Revenue from royalties increased significantly, while Value Added Tax, Petroleum Profit Tax and Companies’ Income Tax decreased significantly.”

Ahmed said there was a need to ensure more savings for the country.

“We have to save. We are not only saving for today, but for tomorrow,” the finance minister stated.