Posted by By Oluyinka Akintunde, Abuja on
The Federation Account Allocation Committee on Tuesday suspended the planned deductions from the monthly allocations of the federal and state governments for the repayment of the money drawn from the Excess Crude Proceed Account to pay Paris Club of creditors.
The Federation Account Allocation Committee on Tuesday suspended the planned deductions from the monthly allocations of the federal and state governments for the repayment of the money drawn from the Excess Crude Proceed Account to pay Paris Club of creditors.
The FAAC, which held its monthly meeting over Federation Account disbursements at the Le Meridien Hotel, Abuja, however, disbursed a total sum of N254.44bn to the three tiers of government being allocation for the month of August 2006.
The Federal Ministry of Finance and the Debt Management Office on behalf of the federal and state governments had drawn $12.4bn from the Excess Crude Proceed Account in the Central Bank of Nigeria to facilitate the Paris Club exit.
The suspension was contained in a letter addressed to FAAC by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Usman, which was read by the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Elias Mbam, at the meeting.
Usman stated that the suspension of the commencement of the deductions of the share of the federal and state governments from the Paris Club debt was due to the inability of the Reconciliation Committee to submit its report before Tuesday's meeting.
The committee, she noted, has up till October 2006 to submit its report and findings to enable the FAAC begin the deductions of the debt from the accounts of the Federal and state governments.