Nigeria’s federal, state, and local governments have shared at least N880 billion of VAT revenue, says the country’s finance ministry.

Finance minister Zainab Ahmed said this at the public consultation on the Draft 2022 to 2024 Medium Term Fiscal Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTFF/FSP).

On Thursday, Ms Ahmed took an overview of the federation and fiscal outcomes for the ‘Federation and VAT Pool Accounts Distributable’ for January to May.

She said the amount available for distribution from the federation account was N2.78 trillion, and “of this amount, the federal government received N998.57 billion, while the state and local governments received N506.59 billion and N390.48 billion, respectively from the Main Pool Account.”

The finance minister added, “Federal, state and local governments received N132.70 billion, N442.33 billion and N309.63 billion respectively from the VAT Pool Account.”

Also, the minister said the gross oil and gas revenue was projected at N5.19 trillion for January to May, noting that “as of May, N1.49 trillion was realised out of the prorated sum of N2.16 trillion.”

This represented 69 per cent performance.

Ms Ahmed added, “Oil and gas deductions were N194.31 billion (or 45.8 per cent) more than the budget. This is mainly attributable to petroleum subsidy costs which were not provided for in the 2021 Budget.

“After netting out deductions (including 13 per cent derivation), net oil and gas revenue inflows to the Federation Account amounted to N872.16 billion.”

She noted that the inflow was N864.20 billion or 49.8 per cent less than the projection as of May. Giving an update on the revenue performance of 2021 budget implementation for January to May, Ms Ahmed said the federal government’s retained revenue was N1.84 trillion, 67 per cent of the pro rata target.

She further stated that the share of oil revenues was N289.61 billion, representing 50 per cent performance and that non-oil tax revenues totalled N618.76 trillion, 99.7 per cent of pro rata.

“Companies Income Tax (CIT) and VAT collections were ahead of the budget targets with N290.90 billion and N123.85 billion, representing 102 per cent and 125 per cent respectively of the pro rata targets for the period. Customs collections were N204.0 billion (86 per cent of target),” explained Ms Ahmed.

She added that other revenues amounted to N762.70 billion, of which “independent” revenues were N487.01 billion.

On the expenditure side, the minister said N4.86 trillion, representing 92.7 per cent of the prorated budget, had been spent, pointing out that “this excludes GOEs’ and project-tied debt expenditures.”

(NAN)