After weeks of horse-trading over revenue underpayment by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the three tiers of government have finally received the sum of ₦668.8 billion as allocation for the month of May.
The Director of Information, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr Hassan Dodo, confirmed the release of the fund in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday.
He said the fund was released to the three tiers of government while reconciliation of the revenue underpayment was still ongoing.
The statement read in part, “Owing to the disagreement on remittances by the revenue generating agencies, especially the NNPC, the sharing of revenue for May 2018 that was meant to be distributed in June 2018 was put on hold.
“However, the urgent need to cushion the undue hardships being experienced by workers nationwide has made it necessary to distribute the May figures totalling ₦668.898 billion to the three tiers of government, while efforts are being intensified to address the unsatisfactory remittances.”
The statement added that the ₦668.89 billion allocation was made up of statutory distributable sum of ₦575.47 billion and ₦93.42 billion for Value Added Tax.
It said the statutory revenue of ₦575.47 billion received in the month of May was ₦37.58bn lower than the ₦613.05 billion received in April.
From the total statutory revenue of ₦575.47 billion, the statement said the Federal Government got ₦268.77 billion; the states, ₦136.324 billion; and local government councils, ₦105.1 billion.
In addition to the revenue received by the three tiers of government, the statement noted that the oil producing states got the sum of the ₦53.07 billion based on the 13 per cent derivation principle.
For VAT revenue of ₦93.42 billion, the statement explained that it was shared thus: the Federal Government got ₦13.45bn; states, ₦44.84 billion; while the local government councils received ₦31.39 billion.
The balance of ₦3.73 billion was received by the revenue collecting agencies as cost of revenue collection.
The Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting, where revenues are usually shared, had within the last one month ended in a deadlock on four different occasions over allegations of revenue underpayment by the NNPC.
The Chairman, Forum of Finance Commissioners of FAAC, Mahmood Yunusa, had during a chat with journalists in Abuja said the committee was demanding an overhaul of the oil revenue collection system.
He said there was need for the revenue collection process to be strengthened to avoid situations where states were being short-changed.