FG, states share N731.13bn from federation account

The Federation Account Allocation Committee on Friday night allocated the sum of N731.13bn among the three tiers of government for the Month of March.

 

The March allocation represents a decline of N1.49bn over the N729.64bn shared by the committee in the Month of February.

 

When compared with the budget benchmark of N745.71bn for the month of March, the N731.13bn showed a negative variance of N14.57bn.

 

The committee also transferred the sum of N95.24bn into the Excess Crude Account bringing the new balance in the ECA to $7bn.

 

Addressing journalists shortly after the four- hour meeting which began at about 7pm and lasted late into the night, the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama put the gross revenue for the month of March at N595.71bn.

 

The gross revenue of N595.71bn, he added is made up of mineral and non-mineral revenue of N518.38bn and N77.32bn respectively.

 

He said the gross revenue received for the month of March was N24.02bn higher than the N571.67bn received in the preceding month.

 

The minister attributed the increase in revenue to receipt of arrears of crude oil and gas sales.

 

Giving a breakdown of the distribution, Ngama said N496.41bn was shared under statutory allocation, N61.63bn under Value Added Tax distribution, N35.549bn under the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme.

 

Also shared was N7.61bn being part payment of the debt owed the Federation Account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

 

Of the statutory allocation of N496.41bn, the federal government got N232.53bn representing 52.68 per cent, state governments got N117.92bn or 26.72 per cent while the 774 local government councils were allocated N90.93bn or 20.60 per cent.

 

------Ifeanyi Onuba/Punch. Sunday, April 14, 2013