Niger Delta militants hit Nigeria hard

 Militants reduce oil income: Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance has less to share

Niger Delta militants have had another  grave effect on Nigeria’s income as all the three tiers of government in Nigeria got in September N90.2 billion less than what they got from the central pool  in August.

The decline has been  blamed on the sabotage of the oil sector, which has made the country produce only two thirds of its crude target.

The strain has shown and many states in Nigeria, will again be unable to pay the salaries of their workers, officials said.

The Chairman, Commissioners of Finance Forum, Mr John Inegbedion, from Edo state agreed the lower revenue generated for the month would put a strain on the finances of states and local government.

“Something needs to be done to end the activities of the Niger-Delta militants because it is really impacting on the economy.

“We want to seek all support from all persons to help in bringing down the activities of these unscrupulous persons,” he said.

For September, the three tiers of government shared N420 billion as revenue  as against N510.3 billion shared in August.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun attributed decline to the loss of 45.5 million dollars in Federation export sales, despite the increase in average price of crude oil from 46.06 dollars per barrel in May to 48.4 dollars in June.

“Force Majeure was declared at Bonny Terminal and there was a subsisting Force Majeure at Forcados Terminal.

“Shut-in and Shut-down of pipelines for repairs and maintenance also contributed to the drop in revenue.

“Also, there were decreases in volume of dutiable imports receipts from Joint Venture Cash Call, Foreign Companies Income Tax and Value Added Tax,” she said.

Giving a breakdown of how the N420 billion revenue for September was generated, Adeosun said that N250.9 billion was from the distributable Statutory Revenue of the month.

She added that N6.33 billion was refunded by the NNPC to the Federation, N63.4 billion from the Excess Petroleum Profit Tax account, exchange gain of N41.4 billion and VAT, N64.2 billion.

The minister said after deductions as cost of collection by FIRS, Customs and DPR, the Federal Government received N120.4billion, representing 52.68 per cent; states got N61 billion, representing 26.72 per cent.

The local governments received N47 billion, amounting to 20.60 per cent of the amount distributed.

She announced that N13.7 billion, representing 13 per cent derivation revenue, was also shared among the oil producing states.

Adeosun said that the country generated N135.4billion as mineral revenue and N144.3 billion as non-mineral revenue.

She said this showed a decrease of N23.3 billion and N12 billion from what the country generated as mineral and non-mineral revenue in the months of August and September.

She said that the balance in the Excess Crude Account remains 2.45 billion dollars.

She was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Mahmoud Isa-Dutse.

Source; nan