In defiance to several calls on the federal government to build up buffers for the future, there was a further withdrawal of $253.15 million between January and February 2020 by the federal government from the joint Excess Crude Account (ECA) operated by both the Federal, States and Local Governments of the federation.
According to a communique that was issued at the end of Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting yesterday, it was announced that as at February 19, 2020, the balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) was $71.814 million.
As at January 16th, 2020, the balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) was $324.968 million. The latest withdrawal brings the balance in the special account to $71.814 million within a month period. The federal government did not give reason(s) for the depletion of the account.
Interestingly, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in January urged the fiscal authorities to strongly consider building buffers by not sharing all proceeds from the federation account at the monthly FAAC meetings to avert the macroeconomic downturn in the event of an oil price shock.
This was announced on Wednesday at the meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) held in Lagos.
The meeting, chaired by the permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Alhaji Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, was part of activities of the 2020 FAAC Retreat.
The N647.353 billion comprised Statutory Revenue, Value Added Tax (VAT), Exchange Gain, Non-Oil Revenue and Excess Bank Charges recovered.
The gross statutory revenue for the month of January 2020 was N525.253 billion. This was lower than the N600.314 billion received in the previous month by N75.061 billion.
A communique issued by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) indicated that from the total revenue of N647.353 billion, the federal government received N267.389 billion, the state governments received N176.923 billion, and the local government councils received N132.944 billion.
The Oil Producing States received N46.197 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue and the Revenue Generating Agencies received N23.900 billion as cost of revenue collection.
A breakdown of the distribution showed that from the gross statutory revenue of N525.253 billion, the federal government received N243.704 billion, the state governments received N123.610 billion and the local government councils received N95.298 billion. Also, the Oil Producing States received N46.074 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue and the Revenue Collecting Agencies received N16.567 billion as cost of collection.
From the Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N104.758 billion, the federal government received N14.614 billion, the state governments received N48.713 billion, the local government councils received N34.099 billion and the Revenue Generating Agencies received N7.333 billion as cost of revenue collection.
The communique confirmed that for the month of January 2020, there was a significant increase in Import Duty revenue while Companies Income Tax (CIT), Value Added Tax (VAT), Oil and Gas Royalties and Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) recorded decreases