By Adedapo Adesanya

The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has disclosed that the current balance in Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account (ECA) stands at $323.692 million as of Thursday, October 17, 2019.

The ECA, which was created by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2004 for the purpose of saving oil revenue in excess of the budgeted benchmark, had once reached a peak of $20 billion in 2009, but has since recorded decline due to government’s inability to effectively generate revenue from non-oil sector to fund its expenditures.

In a statement issued by the FAAC, which is headed by the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Ahmed Idris, it was also revealed that a total of N693.529 billion was shared across the federal, thirty-six states and 774 local governments in Nigeria for the month of September 2019.

The money comprises revenue made from Value Added Tax (VAT), Exchange Gain, and Gross Statutory Revenue.

A communique issued by FAAC confirmed that from the total revenue of N693.529 billion, the Federal Government received N293.801 billion, the states received N186.816 billion, while the Local Government Councils received N140.864 billion.

On their parts, the oil-producing states received N51.532 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue and the revenue-generating agencies received N20.517 billion as cost of revenue collection.

The gross statutory revenue for September was N599.701 billion, N32.095 billion lesser than the sum of N631.796 billion received in the previous month.

The gross revenue of N92.874 billion in September was available from the Value Added Tax as against N88.082 billion distributed in the preceding month, resulting in an increase of N4.792 billion.

It was also noted that the exchange gain yielded a total revenue of N0.954 billion.

Looking at a break-down of the distribution, it showed that from the gross statutory revenue of N599.701 billion, the Federal Government received N279.985 billion, the states received N142.012 billion, while the Local Government Councils received N109.485 billion.

Also, the oil-producing states received N51.417 billion as 13 percent derivation revenue and the revenue collecting agencies received N16.802 billion as cost of collection.

“The N92.874 billion gotten from Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue was shared accordingly in which the Federal Government received N13.374billion, the states received N44.580 billion, and Local Government Councils received N31.206 billion and the revenue-generating agencies received N3.715 billion,” the statement added.

However, it was revealed that in September, revenue from Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) and Company Income Tax (CIT) dropped while royalties, import and excise duties, and VAT increased considerably.

Source:- Businesspost