By Dipo Olowookere
The N668.9 billion generated in the month of May 2018 has been shared to the three tiers of government after series of disputes over the funds.
The inability of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) to disburse the revenue the federal, states and local governments has made it impossible for state governments to pay salaries to their workers.
There have been disagreements over the amount submitted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to FAAC with state governments accusing the oil agency of under-remitting revenues.
Director of Information at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr Hassan Dodo, disclosed in a statement that the N668.9 billion shared was made up of statutory revenue of N575.5 billion and N93.4 billion from Value Added Tax (VAT).
According to him, the federal government received N282.2 billion, state governments got N181.2 billion, while local government councils were given N136.5 billion.
He said the oil-producing states received additional N53.1 billion as 13 percent derivation while N15.9 billion was paid to the revenue generating agencies as costs of collections.
Mr Dodo said in the statement that, “Owing to disagreement on remittances by the revenue generating agencies, especially the NNPC, the sharing of revenues 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 N668.898 billion to the three tiers of government.
“Efforts are being intensified to address the unsatisfactory remittances,” he added.
Adedapo Adesanya