Government revs up revenue by N42bn

… as three federating units to share N409bn

Helped by ex- change gains, Nigerian government gross revenue (exclusive of VAT) moved up for the first time in months by N41.999 billion to N324.061 billion in May from N282 billion April figure, but still abysmally lower than the budgeted N514 billion.

Anastasia Nwaobia, per- manent secretary, Ministry of Finance, who, Tuesday presided over the month’s Federation Account Allo- cation Committee (FAAC) meeting, said increase in the average crude oil prices from $56.04 in March 2015 to $59.88 in April, brought about some $19.70 million gain in revenue.

Revenues are still being bruised by low oil prices supply shock arising from regular pipeline vandalism, especially in the oil rich Niger Delta of the country.

Nwaobia said shut down and shut-in of trunks and pipelines at terminals continued to impact negatively on crude oil revenue.

Meanwhile, delays in issuance of third quarter 2015 Export Permit led to a drop of about 160,000 barrels per day in April, she said.

Non-oil revenues, including VAT, are also currently performing less than budgetary expectations, even though government authorities are hopeful of a better performance later in the year on account of some mechanisms being out in place by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

A communique issued at the end of the FAAC meeting showed that gross mineral revenue in May stood at N225,167 billion, lower than N323.483 billion.

Non-mineral revenue, recorded at N98.894 billion equally fell short of the budgeted amount of from these distributions, N31.240 billion was equally shared among the federating units as exchange gains proceeds, while the Federal Government received an additional N6.330 billion as refund from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Addressing journalists after the meeting, Nwao- bia said the NNPC was yet to present repayment plan for the $1.48 billion oil money as directed by the Price Water House Coopers forensic report.

The FIRS collected N2.403 billion, being 4 per- cent as collection cost.

The Nigerian Customs Service received N2.881 billion, representing 7 percent, and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) collected N1.541 as its cost of collection as well.

For VAT, the FIRS collected an additional N2.273 billion, 4 percent cost of collection.

ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Abuja