Bayelsa government laments decline in federal allocations

The Bayelsa State government has lamented the decline in revenues accruing to it from the Federation Account, while announcing its income and expenditure for August, September and October 2020.

Commissioner for Finance, Maxwell Ebibai, who presented a breakdown of the figures for the three months in Yenagoa, disclosed that the state received an inflow of N12.8b for August.

He explained that the amount consisted statutory allocation of N3.14b, derivation (N8.8b), Value Added Tax (VAT) N1.97b and N636m refund for Pay As You Earn (PAYE). Ebibai also noted that deductions from the Federation Allocation Accounts Committee (FAAC) was N1.007b comprising foreign loans to the state, while Federal Government recovery amounted to N42.171m and restructured loan of N741.156m, among others.

The commissioner, who said the state received N463.9m internally generated revenue (IGR) for July 2020, added that funds realised from other sources stood at N500m. He said receipts from FAAC excluding deductions at source amounted to N11.8b, but IGR for July brought the total receipts to N13.159b.

For September, he stated that the state recorded N10.285b gross inflow, including statutory allocation of N2.981b, derivation (N6.030b) and VAT (N1.27b).

Ebibai also announced N1.952b as total deductions from FAAC, noting that judging from the deductions at source from August, that of September was higher by N933m. He said after the deduction of N1.952b from FAAC, the state was left with a net balance of N8.333b as against N11.8b in August.

“The state government received N1.49b in August and had to source N2b due to the revenue shortfall the previous month. The net funds available to the state came to N11.382b, while total expenditure amounted to N7.2b,” he said.

He further noted that the expenditure among other components included civil servants salaries of N3.9b, gratuity (N150m) and N173.5m for salaries of political appointees. Ebibai explained that Governor Douye Diri had been consistent in paying gratuities to pensioners despite the state’s financial constraints and assured that it would sustain the payment until the backlogs are cleared.

He added that recurrent and capital expenditure gulped N4.140b leaving a balance of N26.560m, while it recorded a closing balance of N995m in September. For October, the state received N10.2b, comprising statutory allocation of N1.9b, N3.8b from derivation, N1.2b from VAT and N1.9b from forex equalisation fund.

He said total deductions at source stood at N1.9b, which included foreign loans and Federal Government recovery, while commercial agriculture credit scheme and other items gulped N939.8m.