Posted by From John Ofikhenua, Abuja on
Nigeria's revenue declined by N177.52 billion last month - no thanks to tumbling crude oil prices, which dropped below $45 per barrel.
Nigeria's revenue declined by N177.52 billion last month - no thanks to tumbling crude oil prices, which dropped below $45 per barrel.
According to a report released by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), which met at the weekend in Abuja, the Federal Government earned N353.34 billion from mineral and non-mineral revenue in November as against N530.86 billion in October.
Even as revenue dropped, the three tiers of government shared N438.51 billion from the Federation Account, compared to the N436.72 billion shared in October.
Minister of State for Finance Remi Babalola, who spoke with reporters at the end of the FAAC meeting, said N106.73 billion came from the Domestic Excess Crude Savings Account as budget augmentation of November 2008, to shore the total revenue shared among the three tiers of government.
Babalola noted that the government's fiscal ingenuity in 2009 would be put to task due to the deepening global downturn, contracting capital flows and tightening credit situation.
"In 2009, the challenge we are going to have is, what if the price of crude comes down below the benchmark price of $45 per barrel. Even at $45, we have deficit. We have done our own scenario in terms of using oil production, different prices below $45 and we are still comfortable.
"We need to be realistic, pragmatic and futuristic about our policy effectiveness. It would be very challenging but we would weather the storm in 2009," said Babalola, who chairs the monthly FAAC meeting.
Statutory allocation accounts for N296.86 billion of the revenue shared from the Federation Account. Value Added Tax (VAT) and Domestic Excess Crude account contributed N34.92 billion and N106.73 billion.
The three tiers of government in October shared statutory allocation of N318.36 billion, VAT of N32.67 billion and Domestic Excess Crude of N85.69 billion.
Of the statutory allocation of N296.86 billion, the Federal Government received N140.80 billion (about 52.68 per cent), a shortfall of N9.31 billion over the N150.11 billion received in October.
The 36 states got N71.41 billion. The local governments collected N55.06 billion.
The 13 per cent oil derivation accounted for N29.59 billion and was shared among nine oil producing states of Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Edo and Ondo.
States got the lion's share of the VAT of N17.46 billion (about 50 per cent), an increase of N1.12 billion over its preceding month's figure of N16.34 billion.
The Federal Government received VAT of N5.24 billion (about 15 per cent) while the Local Governments got N12.22 billion (about 35 per cent).