Sliding revenue stirs fresh anxiety for 2015 budget

•Federation Account loses N80.25b in Jan.

THE funding of the yet-to-be passed 2015 federal budget may have run into hitch very  early in the day  drop in revenue accrued to the Federation Account dipped by over N80.248 billion for the month of January this year when compared with that of last December, thus setting a stage for implementation challenges, with Sure-P being the first agency to get a zero.

The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee ( FAAC) which met Tuesday to distribute the January 2015 federally collected revenue told newsmen that a total of N500.130 billion was the net amount for distribution among the three tiers as against the sum of N580.378 billion shaed for December.

The meeting, which held  10 days later than its usual convocation monthly apparently due to the inability of the revenue generating agencies to ramp up revenue for distribution, witnessed several disagreements between the states’ representatives and the Federal Government officials represented by the Minister of State for Finance, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda and the Accountant General of the Federation ( AGF), Mr. Jonah Otunla as the states’s Finance Commissioners kept storming out of the venue of the meeting  for consultation to adopt a common position. A situation which dragged the parley beyond 9pm before a common ground was struck.

Addressing newsmen at the end of the meeting, the AGF, who doubles as the FAAC Secretary, explained that the dip in revenue generation was caused by the decrease in export volume and drop in price of oil at the international market as well as shut -ins of trunks and pipelines at some terminals.

Otunla said: ” The gross revenue of N416.096 billion received for the  month was lower than the N490.031 billion in the previous month by N 73.935 billion. There was substantial loss of revenue due to further drop in crude oil prices from  $77.53 million in November to $52.34 million in December 2014. Also a 33 per cent decrease in export volume between November and December 2014 translated to to a loss of $159.88 million. The shut -down and shut-in of trunks and pipelines at various terminals continued to impact negatively on the revenue performance. Also, non-oil revenue performed below the 2014 budgetary provisions,” the AGF disclosed.