The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) in
Abuja on Tuesday took a decision to remove petroleum subsidy in the country.
The Chairman of
Finance Commissioners Forum, Mr Timothy Odah, said this when he briefed newsmen
on the outcome of the FAAC meeting for the month of March in Abuja.
Odah said at
their last meeting, a committee consisting of six Accountants-General of states
and six state Commissioners for Finance was set up to conduct investigations
and present a report on the impact of the subsidy in the country so far.
FAAC in its
plenary session finally took a decision that petroleum subsidy should be
entirely removed. Because from what was discovered, the subsidy is more or less
a solution worse than the problem it is meant to solve.
Therefore, we
are of the firm decision that it will be better for states to access their
funds and grant subsidy in their respective capacity. ”Our position will be
submitted to the Presidency,’’ he said.
Odah cautioned
organised labour to be careful in its refusal to rally for the removal of the
oil subsidy programme. He alleged that that most of them were against the
removal because they were on the payroll of oil marketers in the country.
The
Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Jonah Otunla, said N641.4
billion was shared among the Federal Government, states and local governments
as revenue for the month of March.
The distributable
statutory revenue for the month is N534.91billion, which is more than the
N531.33 billion that was shared for the month of February .Also distributed is
the sum of N7.62 billion refunded by the NNPC to be shared to states and local
governments.
In addition, the
sum of N35.55 billion is proposed for distribution under the SURE-P programme.
”So, the total revenue distributable for the current month, including Value
Added Tax (VAT) of N63.31 billion is N641.38 billion,’’ he said.
A breakdown of
the distribution showed that the Federal Government received N249.1 billion
representing 52.7 per cent; states, N126.34 billion, representing 26.7 per
cent, while local governments received N97.4 billion, amounting to 20.6 per
cent.
Otunla added
that N57.3 billion, representing 13 per cent derivation revenue was shared
among the oil producing states.
On VAT, he said
that the gross revenue collected in March was N63.31 billion as against N66.8
billion distributed in February, representing a decrease of N3.49 billion.
He said that the
mineral revenue collected for March was N519.99 billion, less than the N569.14
billion realised in February making a difference of N49.15 billion.
The AGF said
that non-mineral revenue collected during the period under review was N94.37
billion. The figure, he said, showed reduction of N3.24billion from the N97.61
billion that was collected in February.
Otunla said that
N79.45 billion was transferred to the nation’s Excess Crude Account. He said
that oil revenue for March had declined compared to the previous month.
Otunla
attributed the decline to production shut-in at Qua Iboe Terminal, shut down of
Forcados and oil theft and some repair works on pipeline leaks at Bonny and
Brass Terminals.
On other
matters, Otunla said the work plan for the implementation of the International
Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) in government agencies was
discussed.