The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Economic Report for the month of August released at the weekend showed that despite a 32.7% decline in federally-collected revenue in August, when compared to budget estimates for the month, the Federal Government still recorded an surplus of N35.21bn for the period.
The report showed that while Abuja’s retained revenue for August was N344.33bn out of the N745.52bn, estimated federally-collected revenue (gross), while total provisional expenditure stood at N309.12bn, resulting in the estimated surplus.
Budget estimate for August was N1.107tr, just as receipt in July stood at N947.62bn, representing a 21.3% decline.
According to the report, “the decline relative to the monthly budget estimate was attributed to a shortfall in both oil and non-oil revenue. Oil receipts at N403.59 billion or 54.1% of total revenue, was below the monthly budget estimate of N640.21bn by 37%, as well as below the preceding month’s receipt of N513.54bn by 21.4%.
“The fall in oil revenue relative to the monthly budget estimate was attributed to the drop in crude oil production arising from repairs and maintenance of oil facilities at various NNPC terminals,” the report added.
While N557.16bn net of the total federally-collected revenue was retained in the Federation Account; N76.61bn, N26.86bn and N13.43bn were transferred to the VAT the Pool Account, the Federal Government Independent revenue and “Others”, respectively.
Of the N557.16bn transferred to the Federation Account, the Federal Government received N269.82bn, while the state and local governments got N136.86bn and N105.51bn, respectively, leaving a balance of N44.96bn was shared among the oil producing states as 13% Derivation Fund.
Similarly, from the N76.61bn transferred to the VAT Pool Account, the Federal Government received N11.49bn, while the state and local governments got N38.31bn and N26.82bn, respectively; just as the sum of N66.88bn was distributed in the month as “Exchange Gain”.