FG, States, LGs share (another word for looting) N603 billion

Posted by admin Headlines Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Emma Ujah and Caleb Ayansina
The three tiers of government, yesterday, shared a total of N603.444 billion from federally collected revenue for the month of October, which would be used for November expenditure.

According to the communiqué issued at the end of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, meeting in Abuja, the revenue which was distributed from the Federation Account amounted to N440. 472 billion, another N49. 574 billion came from proceeds of the Value Added Tax, VAT, while N113.398 billion was drawn down from the excess crude oil account to augment the revenue which was less than what was budgeted.

The gross revenue which stood at N788.54 billion received in the month under review was lower than the preceding month’s earning of N924.523 billion, which indicated a difference of about N 135.977 billion.

An analysis of the distribution among the three levels of government showed that the federal government took a total of N216. 186 billion; the state government got a total of N130.617 billion; while the 774 local governments were given N98.941 billion.

The nine oil producing states received an additional N44.402 billion, representing the 13 per cent derivation from oil and gas revenue for the month.

The sum of N264.548 billion was transferred into the Excess Crude Account; while the Nigeria Customs Service and the Federal Inland Revenue Service also got N2.488 billion and N2.744 billion representing the cost of collection of revenue within the period under review.

In a brief interview at the end of the meeting, the Minister of state for Finance, Alh. Yerima Ngama, said that the fuel subsidy has become unbearable for the government and that Nigerians would have to make a choice between the continued fuel subsidy and the provision of critical infrastructure.

His words, “we have a lot of projects that are uncompleted and we believe that we are to make a choice between the petroleum subsidy and the provision of essential services like completing our roads, repairing our rail way.

“We have all agreed that it is not practical to actually continue to bear an increasing subsidy expense when some states could hardly pay minimum wage, when some schools are not renovated, when some states are struggling to provide health services, when some states could not execute certain road project successfully.

The amount that will be used for subsidy could be used to provide critical infrastructure and social services. The government is looking at this issue critically and we are calling on every body to please look at the issue pragmatically.

“ For some time now we have been deliberating on this fuel subsidy and the commissioners are not happy with the rising cost of this subsidy. The government has it as a policy to subsidize the petroleum products but the cost is increasing from month to month and the burden has become unbearable to the commissioners”.

He revealed that the federal government would decide whether or not to use part of its revenue to sustain the subsidy “or to use it for the provision of critical infrastructure and social services to our people” adding that “when the government meets all these critical needs there may be enough to subsidize cost of living.wp_posts