After adjourning its meeting for two consecutive times in two months, the Federation Accounts and Allocation Committee (FAAC) reconvened yesterday, deliberated and approved the revenue figures presented by the Accountant General of the Federation for the month of March, 2018.There was a decrease in revenue for the month of March, as a total of N626.827 billion was distributed as Federal Allocation among the Federal Government, State Governments and Local Government Councils in the month. The amount is lower than the N647.390 shared last month.Eyes Of Lagos gathered that, The communiqué issued by FAAC and read to journalists by the Accountant General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris at the end of the meeting held yesterday in Abuja, showed that the gross statutory revenue received for the month is also lower than the N559.943 billion received in the previous month by N77.344 billion. The shared amount comprise the month’s statutory distributable revenue of N480.599 billion and the Value Added Tax of N80.352 billion, excluding N3.348 billion cost of collection. Accordingly, from net statutory allocation, the federal government received N222.392 billion representing 52.68 per cent; states received N112.800 billion or 26.72 per cent; local government councils received N86.964 billion representing 20.60 per cent. Oil producing states received 13 per cent derivation revenue of N46389 billion. For the month of March, 2018, the gross revenue available from Value Added Tax (VAT) was N83.700 billion as against N89.447 billion distributed in the preceding month, resulting in a decrease of N5.747 billion. There was also remittance of Excess Petroleum Profit Tax of N133 million, Idris said. From that, the federal government received N12.053 billion – 15 per cent; all the States received N40.176 billion, representing 50 per cent of the figure, while the local government councils received N28.123 billion, being 35 per cent of the generated revenue from VAT. The nation’s Excess Crude Account now stands at $1.830 billion, following the $1 billion deduction from the account by the federal government to fight insecurity in the country. Mr. Idris explained that there was a decrease in crude oil export sales volume by 13 per cent when compared with the 5.42 million barrels from previous month, resulting in reduced revenue from Federation Crude Oil Exports Sales by $33.58 million. However, the average crude oil price increased from $63.08 to $65.72 per barrel. According to the communique, the issues that affected production were the shut-ins and shutdowns at various terminals for repairs and maintenance. There was considerable rise in Oil Royalty for Tue month, while Companies Income Tax and Import Duty recorded marginal increases.
