Joseph Inokotong, and Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), Thursday at its joint session shared a total of N679.699 billion as federal allocation to the Federal, States and Local Government Councils, for the month of May 2019
A breakdown of the distribution to the three tiers of government (inclusive of cost of collection to NCS, DPR and FIRS), showed that the Federal Government received N284.163 billion, representing 52.68 per cent; States received N187.605 billion representing 26.72 per cent while the 774 Local Government Councils got N140.997 billion, representing 20.60 per cent of the allocation. This was as the Oil Producing States received N40.436 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue even as cost of collection/transfers/FIRS refund stood at N26.498 billion.
A communiqué issued by the Technical Committee of the FAAC indicated that the Gross Revenue available from the Value Added Tax (VAT) for the month of May 2019 was N106.826 billion, compared to the N96.485 billion distributed in the previous month of April, showing an increase of N10.341 billion.
It further disclosed that the distributed Statutory Gross Revenue of N571.731 billion received for the month was higher than the N518.916 billion received in the previous month by N52.815 billion.
According to the communiqué, revenues from Oil Royalty and Companies Income Tax (CIT) recorded significant increases while Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) decreased significantly.
Meanwhile, Import Duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) also recorded marginal increases.
However, the total revenue distributable for the current month, including VAT and Exchange Gain of N1, 142 billion, was N679.699 billion.
The committee further disclosed that as at June 27, 2019, the Excess Crude Account (ECA) had a balance of $63.005million.
Meanwhile, Mr Elias Mbam, the Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), has said the Commission will work towards increasing the revenue shared by federal, state and local governments.
Mbam made this known to State House correspondents on Thursday after President Muhammadu Buhari swore him in as RMAFC Chairman alongside commissioners representing 30 states at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, following Senate’s confirmation of reappointment as Chairman of RMAFC on May 8.
Mbam told a news conference that the president was emphatic in tasking the Commission to deliver on its mandate, assuring his team will work towards achieving the mandate.
“We need to increase the sources of revenue to the federation account; in other words, we will concentrate more efforts on how to increase of the size of cake for allocation to the three tiers of government instead of struggling to share a shrinking cake. “So, the Commission will key into the diversification programme of the Federal Government with a view to finding other sources of revenue that will increase resources to the federation account…”