By Adedapo Adesanya
The amount left in the country’s Excess Crude Account (ECA) has plunged by 98.9 per cent to $376,655.09 from the $35.7 million it was as of June 2022.
This was disclosed in a communiqué issued at the end of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting for July 2022 in Abuja on Tuesday.
The FAAC didn’t give any explanation for the huge decline in the ECA, which was set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo as a reserve for earnings above the benchmark from the sale of crude oil.
The slump in the ECA came as allocation to the federal, state, and local governments increased by N121.624 billion as FAAC shared a total sum of N802.407 billion for June.
Business Post reported that the sum of N680.783 billion was shared in the month of May and N656, 602 in April.
However, the rise in June allocation was attributed to tremendous increases in Companies Income Tax (CIT) and Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), although oil and gas royalties declined marginally.
The communiqué explained that the N802.407 billion total distributable revenue comprised distributable statutory revenue of N608.580 billion and distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N193.827 billion.
According to the communique, total deductions for the cost of collection was N44.606 billion, and deductions for transfers, savings, refunds and 13 per cent derivation to Anambra State was a total sum of N373.200.
The share of the federal government from the total distributable revenue of N802.407 billion was N321.859 billion, the states received N245.418 billion, and the local governments got N182.330 billion.
The sum of N52.799 billion was shared to the relevant states as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
The communique revealed that gross statutory revenue of N1,012.065 billion was received for the month of June 2022.
This was higher than the sum of N589.952 billion received in the previous month by N422.113 billion.
From the N608.580 billion distributable statutory revenue, the federal government received N292.785 billion, the states received N148.505 billion and the local governments received N114.491 billion.
In the month of June 2022, the gross revenue available from VAT was N208.148 billion, which was lower than the N213.179 billion available in the month of May 2022 by N5.031 billion.
From the N193.827 billion distributable VAT revenue, the federal government received N29.074 billion, states received N96.914 billion and the local government councils received N67.839 billion.
According to the communiqué, in the month of June 2022, CIT and PPT recorded tremendous increases, while import duty, oil, and gas royalties increased marginally.
Excise duties decreased significantly while VAT decreased marginally.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised Nigeria and other African countries currently experiencing high debt levels to as a matter of urgency take proactive measures to restructure them in order to avoid debt crises
Modupe Gbadeyanka