Federal revenue dropped by N117.89bn in December ! – FAAC

Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama

The Federal Government on Wednesday said that the country recorded a decline of N117.89bn in gross federally collected revenue in the month of December 2013.

The drop was made known to journalists shortly after the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meeting held at the Ministry of Finance headquarters in Abuja.

The meeting, chaired by the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama, began at 8pm and ended at about 10:20pm.

Details of the FAAC allocation, which were made available to journalists in Abuja, put the gross revenue received for the month of December at N479.95bn.

This, according to analysis, is 19.7 per cent lower than the N597.75bn received in the month of November.

The report attributed the huge decline in revenue to serious disruptions in crude oil production and lifting operations due to maintenance, vandalism of pipelines and unanticipated disruptions.

The report stated, “The gross revenue of N479.95bn received for the month was lower than the N597.75bn received in the previous month by N117.8bn.

“The month under review recorded serious disruptions in production and lifting operation due to maintenance, vandalism of pipelines and force majeure declared at the Bonny Terminal.”

Owing to the shortfall in revenue, the allocation for the three tiers of government also dropped by N164.2bn from N675.65bn in November to N581.49bn in December.

A breakdown of the amount showed that N473.6bn was shared under statutory distribution; N64.72bn under Value Added Tax and N35.54bn under the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program.

Similarly, N7.617bn was shared among the three tiers of government from the refund made by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation as a result of its indebtedness to the Federation Account.

Ngama, who addressed journalists shortly after the meeting, said the committee that was set up to address the issue of pipeline vandalism would soon submit its report.

He admitted that in the interim, the committee had made progress in tackling some of the issues affecting the generation of oil revenue for the country.

Also speaking at the end of the meeting, the Chairman, Commissioners Forum of FAAC, Mr. Timothy Odaah, said the drop in revenue was deplorable.

He said that a committee headed by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Otunla, had been set up to determine the exact volume of crude oil being produced by NNPC daily.

Odaah said that in the light of the decline in revenue, there was a need for the states to boost their internal revenue generating capacities to be able to cushion the impact of the fall in oil revenue.

He said, “The return is very deplorable and there is nothing we can do, but we have constituted some technical committee and they have been empowered to deal decisively with the issues concerning the returns from the revenue agencies, especially the NNPC.

“We will want to know what the average daily production is and to use it as a yardstick to measure the return.”