• Monetizes $9.16bn To Federation Account In 2017
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Wednesday published its 2017 Activity Report, which showed in part that, remittances for school fees, medical obligations of the Federal Government, its Ministries, Departments and Agencies, among others soared by 123.18% between 2016 and 2017.
A total of $8.28bn was remitted, compared with $3.71bn in 2016, a situation the report prepared by the CBN’s Banking & Payment System Department (BPSD) “attributed to increase in government activities within the reviewed period.”
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari spent 104 days on treatment for undisclosed ailments in 2017.
According to The New York Times, in May this year, President Buhari may “have spent more than 170 days in London on official medical leave since becoming president in 2015”.
His medical tourism in 2017 began on January 19 and was apparently meant to be a short stay that became elongated forcing him to write the National Assembly to extend his medical leave. He returned on March 10, but did not resume work, preferring to work from home, but flew out again on May 7. This time, he returned August 19 and took a while to resume, with the Presidency blaming damaged furniture in his office.
Ironically, according to the report, the amount was almost the entire $9.16bn monetised by the apex bank to the Federation Account during the period, compared with $7.72bn in 2016, indicating an increase of $1.44 billion (0.09%). A total of $0.73bn was transferred to the Excess Crude Account, compared to the $1.23bn in 2016.
A breakdown of the receipts for the period showed that in 2017, crude oil receipts amounted to $2.10bn, against $2.35bn in 2016, while gas receipts stood at $0.66bn, compared to $0.07bn in 2016.
The total receipts amounted to $2.76bn, in the review period, up by 14.45% from $2.42bn in 2016.
Petroleum Profit Tax collected in 2017 was $3.96bn, down by 10.41% from $4.42bn in 2016, while other taxes collected amounted to $1.47bn, compared with $1.59bn in 2016, indicating a 7.55% drop.
“Also, revenue from oil royalties, rentals, gas flared penalties and gas royalties amounted to $2.36bn, against $1.75bn, indicating an increase of $0.61bn or 34.86%.
Meanwhile, federally collected revenue for the period was N6.418tr, which was N1.836tr or 40.08% better when compared with the N4.581tr collected in 2016.
The growth was attributed to an increase in the “revenue from Companies Income Tax (CIT), Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Value Added Tax (VAT), and Import and Excise duties,” the report added.
The report showed, for example, that total revenue from oil receipts stood at N4.482tr, with average crude oil price increasing from $44.74 per barrel, to $56.83pb during the period under review; while non-oil receipts amounted to N1.935tr.
Percentage contribution of non-oil receipt to total revenue in 2017 dropped to 30.16% from 57.25% in 2016.
Specifically, crude oil receipt amounted to N827.86bn, representing an increase of 50.29% from N550.56bn in prior year; just as domestic oil and gas receipts came to N1.391tr, as against N729.02bn in 2016.
“Oil and gas royalties, rentals, gas flared and miscellaneous revenue was N750.86bn, representing an increase of 29.59% from N579.41bn in 2016. Petroleum Profit Tax receipts was N1.512tr, indicating an increase of 43.43%, compared with N1.054tr in 2016.”
The non-oil receipts, the report added, “comprised CIT, Import and Excise duties, fees, auction sales, Common External Tariff (CET), special levy, customs penalty charges and receipts from Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) through Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) and Education Tax (EDT), amounted to N1,935.95 billion or 30.16% of the total revenue.”