Dons Eze
FG FAILS TO PAY ALLOCATION TO LOCAL GOVTS THREE MONTHS AFTER SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT
The Local government councils’ allocations for September 2024 were paid into the states/LGs Joint accounts by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) contrary to what Nigerians were made to believe that the funds would go directly into the LGs’ individual accounts as ordered more than three months ago by the Supreme Court.
The FAAC met on Thursday in Abuja and shared a total sum of N1.298 trillion generated in September 2024 to the federal, states, and local governments.
Reports from FAAC and several state governments revealed that the monies were paid as usual into the joint accounts of the local governments as was the case before the Supreme Court judgment.
The Supreme Court in July ordered the Federal Government to immediately start direct payment of local governments’ monthly allocations into the individual accounts of the 774 local government councils.
However, shortly after the judgment was delivered, the Federal Government said it had identified operational issues that needed to be sorted out before the direct payment could be done.
It thus created a three-month window for all the issues to be resolved. The three-month moratorium lapsed last week.
The Director of Press and Public Relations at the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), Bawa Mokwa, who disclosed the September payments in a statement on Thursday said the amount shared showed a 7.9 percent increase from the N1.203 trillion shared for the previous month.
He pointed out that a total of N1.298 trillion September 2024 Federation Accounts revenue was shared to the federal, states and local governments, stressing that the revenue distribution was announced at the October 2024 meeting of FAAC in Abuja.
According to him, the N1.298 trillion total distributable revenue comprised distributable statutory revenue of N124.716 billion, distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N543.518 billion, Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) revenue of N18.445 billion, Exchange Difference revenue of N462.191 billion and Augmentation of N150.000 billion.
He added that a communiqué issued by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) indicated that total revenue of N2.258 trillion was available in the month of September 2024.
Total deduction for cost of collection was N80.993 billion while total transfers, interventions and refunds were N878.946 billion.
According to the communiqué, gross statutory revenue of N1.043 trillion was received for the month of September 2024.
This was lower than the sum of N1.221 trillion received in the month of August 2024 by N177.426 billion.
He said the gross revenue of N583.675 billion was available from the Value Added Tax (VAT) in September 2024.
This was higher than the N573.341 billion available in the month of August 2024 by N10.334 billion.
He said the communiqué stated that from the N1.298 trillion total distributable revenue, the Federal Government received total sum of N424.867 billion and the State Governments received total sum of N453.724 billion.
The Local Government Councils received total sum of N329.864 billion and a total sum of N90.415 billion (13% of mineral revenue) was shared to the benefiting States as derivation revenue.
On the N124.716 billion distributable statutory revenue, the communiqué stated that the Federal Government received N43.037 billion and the State Governments received N21.829 billion.
The Local Government Councils received N16.829 billion and the sum of N43.021 billion (13% of mineral revenue) was shared to the benefiting States as derivation revenue.
From the N543.518 billion distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue, the Federal Government received N81.528 billion, the State Governments received N271.759 billion and the Local Government Councils received N190.231 billion.
A total sum of N2.767 billion was received by the Federal Government from the N18.445 billion Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL).
The State Governments received N9.222 billion and the Local Government Councils received N6.456 billion.
From the N462.191 billion Exchange Difference revenue, the communiqué stated that the Federal Government received N218.515 billion and the State Governments received N110.834 billion.
The Local Government Councils received N85.448 billion, while the sum of N47.394 billion (13% of mineral revenue) was shared to the benefiting States as derivation revenue.
The Federal Government received N79.020 billion, the State Governments received N40.080 billion and the Local Government Council received N30.900 billion from the N150.000 billion Augmentation.
In September 2024, Oil and Gas Royalty, Excise Duty, Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) and CET Levies increased considerably while Value Added Tax(VAT) and Import Duty increased marginally. Petroleum Profit Tax(PPT), Companies Income Tax(CIT) and others recorded significant decreases.
