The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee on Wednesday at its virtual meeting shared to the three tiers of government a total sum of N547.309bn as federation allocation for the month of May 2020.
FAAC’s virtual meeting was chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, according to a statement issued by the ministry in Abuja on Wednesday night.
The ministry stated that from this amount, inclusive of Value Added Tax, exchange gain and excess bank charges recovered, the Federal Government received N219.799bn; states, N152.436bn; Local Government councils N114.095bn: while the oil-producing states received N37.021bn as derivation (13 per cent of mineral revenue).
“However, the cost of collection/Federal Inland Revenue Refund/Allocation to North East Development Commission was N23.958bn,” the statement added.
It said a communique issued by the Federation Account Allocation Committee at the end of the meeting indicated that the gross revenue available from the VAT for May 2020 was N103.873bn, against N94.498bn distributed in the preceding month of April 2020, resulting in an increase of N9.377bn.
It said the distribution was as follows, Federal Government got N14.49bn; states, N48.301bn; Local Government councils, N33.811bn; while derivation got N0.000; and cost of collection/FIRS refund/allocation to NEDC was N7.271bn.
The statement added that the distributed statutory revenue of N413.953bn received for the month was higher than the N370.411bn received for the previous month by N43.542bn.
From this, the Federal government received N191.58bn; states, N97.172bn; Local Governments, N74.915bn; derivation got N33.599bn; and cost of collection was N16.687bn.
The finance ministry said in the statement that “the communique also revealed that Petroleum Profit Tax, Import Duty and Value Added Tax recorded increases, while Companies Income Tax, Oil Royalty and Excise Duty recorded decreases.”
It stated that the total revenue distributable for the current month including cost of collection to Nigeria Customs Service, Department of Petroleum Resources and FIRS, according to the committee was N547.309bn.
Foreign reserves fall by $129.83m in one week
The country’s foreign reserves have commenced a downward trend, dropping by $129.83m in one week, the latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria have shown.
The reserves, which stood at $36.57bn as of June 3, fell to $36.45bn on June 11.
According to the CBN, the reserves had maintained a steady rise at a level of $33.52bn as of April 30, 2020 before commencing its downward trend in June.
The reserves had earlier slipped into a decline after hitting a high of $45.17bn on June 11, 2019, losing $11bn to close at $33.89bn as of April 28.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the country’s main export commodity, oil, represents around 90 per cent of its exports.
“The country’s oil exports are expected to fall by more than $26bn,” the IMF said.
The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, at the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting, reiterated the need for government to urgently reduce reliance on oil revenue by gradually diversifying the economy and improving tax collection.
He said headwinds to growth remained the legacy issues of the persistent infrastructural and security challenges.
He said, “Central to the committee’s considerations were the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the oil price shock and the likely short to medium-term consequences on the Nigerian economy.
“In particular, the committee acknowledged the gradual improvement in macroeconomic variables, particularly the improvement in the equities market, the containment measures of the COVID-19 induced health crisis as well as the impact of the increase in crude oil price on the external reserves.”
