FG, STATES, LGAs SHARE N609.9BN REVENUE IN NOVEMBER

The three tiers of government, Federal, State and Local Government Areas, have shared a total of N609.958 billion being revenue generated in the month of November 2017.
The figure is higher by N77.21 billion than the N532.758 billion shared for October.
The gross statutory revenue of N549.532 billion was available for the month, which was N106.487 billion higher than the N443.045 billion received in the previous month.
The total sum of N77.209 billion minus cost of collection was received as revenue from Value Added Tax (VAT) for the month by Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigeria Custom Service.
The Accountant General of the Federation, Ibrahim Idris, who chaired the Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting yesterday in Abuja, said the Federal Government was yet to release the $1billion approved by the National Economic Council (NEC) for deduction from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to fight Book Haram insurgents in the North East.
He said that, by December 15, 2017, there was still a net balance of $2.317 billion in the ECA.
Asked why the money in the ECA has failed to rise with the rising cost of crude oil, Idris said the priority was to fund government needs before savings can be made again into the account due to the wide government revenue deficit.
A communiqué by FAAC showed the Federal Government was allocated net allocation of N248.227 billion (52.68%) as against N205.706 received last month. The states received N125.904 billion (26.72%) as against N104.337 billion received in the previous month while the LGAs took N97.067 billion (20.60%) as against N80.439 billion they received for October 2017.
The oil producing states received N43.215 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue as against N40.847 billion received in the previous month.
The communiqué explained that during the period under review, there was revenue decline of N69.49 million in federation export sales due to a drop in crude oil production by 1.75 million barrels.
The national income was further negatively affected by sabotage acts and a brief force majeure declared at Bonny Terminal.
Meanwhile, only 27 states had so far been paid their entitlements from the third tranche of Paris Club refund.
The director of Home Finance in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Olubummi Sinyanbola, who disclosed this yesterday, said the remaining states had not been paid due to issues of process around the payment, which she did not explain further.
She also failed answer whether the consultant that facilitated the refund had been duly paid or not.