By Clem Khena-Ogbena
The total revenue collected by the Federal Government of Nigeria for the month of March has reduced by N52.387billion.
In a comunique issued by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), N614.368billion was collected as gross revenue for the periodmasmagainstbN666.745billion collected in February.
The decline in the gross revenue collected for the month under review was attributed to decline in mineral revenue which resulted from the shut-in at Qua Iboenterminal and shut down of Fracados.
A statement signed by the Accountant General of theFederation, MrnJonas Ogunniyi Otunla also attributed the decline to oil theft and some repair works on pipeline leaks at Bonny and Brass.
Notwithstanding the revenue fall, the three tiers of government shared N641.380billion among themselves as the shortfall was augumented with the N7.617billion eefunded by the NNPC and the N36.549billion from the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (Sure-P) Out of the N530.095billion statutory allocation for March, the FederalmGovernment recieved N249.084billion (52.68mpercent), the state
governments gotnN126.339billion, amountingnto 26.72 percentmwhile the 774 local government councils shared N97.402billion (20.60 per cent) among themselves.
The oil producing states also shared N57.270billion 13 per cent derivation fund among themselves.
Similarly, out of the N80.775billion availble as Value Added Tax (VAT), the federal government received 15 percentbamounting to N9.116billion; states got 50 percent valued at mN30.388bilion while the localmgovernment counciks recieved the remaining balance of N21.271billion.
