The Federal Government withdrew $1.68 billion from the Excess Crude Account, ECA, in one month leaving a balance of $631 million in the Account as at December 19.
This was disclosed on Wednesday in Abuja by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr. Mahmoud Isa Dutse, while addressing journalists at the end of the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, meeting.
The Excess Crude Account is held in trust by the government to cushion the effects of economic hard times during shaky periods. However, the Federal Government said it took 72.7 per cent of the original savings in the account to off-set the last tranche of the Paris Club obligations to states.
Dutse said: “The balance in the ECA is $631 million. The final payment for Paris Club refund to states was made and the figure was deducted and that’s what accounts for the difference.
“A decision was taken to make this refund and part of that decision is that the refund should be funded from the ECA. Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the president approved the money.”
As at November when the FAAC meeting held in Kaduna, the balance declared in the ECA was $2.319 billion but by Wednesday night, it had reduced to $631 million.
Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) Ahmed Idris, when asked by reporters to explain further how the ECA was depleted to such level simply insisted that they “followed due process” in depleting the account.
With regards to the monthly FAAC disbursements, Isa Dutse disclosed that a total of N812.762 billion was distributed as Federal Allocation for the month of November 2018 between the Federal, States and Local Government Councils.
The communiqué issued by the Technical Sub -Committee of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) at the end of its December meeting, indicated that the gross statutory revenue received was N649.629 billion, N32.533 billion lower than the N682.161 billion received in the previous month.
The breakdown of the distributable revenue of N812.762 billion, comprised the statutory revenue of N649.629 billion, Gross Value Added Tax of N92.079 billion, forex equalisation of N70.000 billion and an Exchange Gain of N1.055 billion.
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Therefore, from the Gross statutory revenue, Federal Government received N280.913 billion representing 52.68 per cent; states got N142.483 billion representing 26.72 per cent; local government areas received N109.848 billion representing 20.60 per cent; while the oil producing states received N47.882 billion representing 13per cent derivation revenue.
The breakdown of distribution to the three tiers from Value Added Tax (VAT) showed that Federal Government received N13.259 billion representing 15 per cent; states received N44.198 billion representing 50 per cent while the local government councils received N30.938 billion, also representing 35 per cent.
The Communiqué added that the revenue from the Company Income Tax(CIT) increased significantly while revenues from VAT, Import Duty, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) and Foreign Oil and Gas, Domestic Oil and Gas Royalties all decreased.
