The federal, state and local governments councils in February shared about N610.4billion federal revenue generated in January 2019.

The Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, disclosed this in Abuja while briefing journalists at the end of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting at the finance ministry headquarters.

Mr Idris said approval was being awaited from the finance minister for the payment of additional N50 billion from the Foreign Exchange Equalisation Account.

A communique issued by the FAAC Committee distributed to reporters at the end of the meeting showed the gross revenue received for January 2019 stood at about N505.246 billion.

The document showed the gross revenue receipt was lower than the N547.462 billion received in the previous month by N42.216 billion.

However, the communique said the federation crude oil sales increased by 2.4 million barrels, resulting in increased federation revenue by $149.94 million, despite a drop in the price of crude oil from $81.06 to $75.00 per barrel.

During the month under review, the AGF said oil royalty, import and excise duties increased substantially, while Companies Income Tax (CIT) and Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) decreased marginally.

The gross revenue from Value Added Tax (VAT) collection was about N104.468 billion as against N100.760 billion distributed in the previous month, resulting in an increase of N3.708 billion.

Out of the gross revenue of about N610.368 billion, Mr Idris said the federal government received N252.412 billion, or 52.68 per cent; the states N170.541, or 26.72 per cent, and the local government councils N127.923 billion, or 20.6 per cent.

The oil producing states received N41.992 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue and the revenue generating agencies shared N17.5 billion as the cost of revenue collection.

The agencies included Federal Inland Revenue Service (4 per cent), Nigeria Customs Service (7 per cent), and Department of Petroleum resources (4 per cent).

From the total gross revenue from VAT, the federal government received N15.044 billion, or 15 per cent; the states N50.145 billion, of 50 per cent, and the local government councils N35.102 billion, or 35 per cent.

The AGF said the balance in the Excess Crude Account currently stands at about $2.49 billion.