Federal Accounts Allocation Committee distributes N305.1bn to FG, States, LGs

The Federal Accounts Allocation Committee on Wednesday night distributed a total sum of N305.12bn to the three tiers of government as statutory allocation for the month of May.

The FAAC meeting, which was earlier scheduled to hold on Tuesday, could not be convened because of the protest by workers of the Ministry of Finance, which was suspended on Wednesday.

A communique issued at the end of the meeting, which was read by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, stated that the amount allocated in May was higher than the N281.5bn shared in April.

She attributed the increase in allocation to a slight improvement in non-oil revenues.

For instance, the minister explained that revenue from Companies’ Income Tax rose marginally despite the fact that the period when corporate organisations usually filed their tax returns was not due yet.

From the allocation for May, she said after deducting the cost of collection due to the Nigeria Customs Service and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Federal Government received a total of N122.83bn; the states got N57.22bn; while the 774 local government councils would share N44.12bn.

An additional amount of N16.73bn was allocated to the oil-producing states based on the 13 per cent derivation principle.

In terms of revenue collection for the month, Adeosun said, “Gross statutory revenue of N237.56bn received for the month was higher than the N213.81bn received in the previous month (April) by N23.64bn.

“Companies’ Income Tax recorded a marginal increase even as the time for companies to file their returns has yet to fall due.”

She put the balance in the Excess Crude Account at $2.26bn and refused to respond to journalists’ questions on her ministry workers’ protest.

{PUNCH]