by ‘Jola Sotubo

Following a series of back and forth arguments about how much money is being owed to the nation’s federation account by the Nigerian National petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the latter is said to have returned a sum of N7.16 billion to the said account.

The allegations of misconduct were first levelled against the NNPC last year by the Governor of the Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

Since then the sum in question has been varied from an initial $49. 8 billion to a very recently stated $20 billion.

The Tribune reports:

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Jonah Ogunniyi Otunla, who presided over the February meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), following the exit of Minister of State for Finance, Dr Lawan Yerima Ngama, from the cabinet, said the N7.61 billion was part of the debt owed the federation by the NNPC.

He said the returned debt was part of the N629.12 billion shared among the three tiers of government as allocations for January.

According to Mr Otunla, the shared amount represented proceeds from statutory allocation, N503.68 billion; value added tax, N82.27 billion; Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme, N35.54 billion and the NNPC refund of N7.61 billion

Out of the statutory allocation, the Federal Government, after deducting the cost of collection of N5.24 billion for the Nigeria Customs Service and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), got N235.02 billion, about 52.68 per cent; the 36 states, N119.20 billion or 26.72 per cent; while the local governments got N91.9 billion or 20.6 per cent.

Similarly, the oil producing states received N52.30 billion, based on the 13 per cent derivation principle.

Otunla said the country recorded an increase of N60.92 billion in gross revenue, from N479.95 billion received in December to N540.87 billion in January.

“The gross revenue of N540.87 billion received for the month was higher than the N479.95 billion received in the previous month by N60.92 billion, regardless of the disruptions in production and lifting operations that were witnessed in the month under review, due to maintenance, multiple leaks, pipeline breaks and theft,” Otunla stated.