Efforts by the Federal Government to improve the security situation in the Niger Delta seem to be yielding results as data released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday shows that a rise in oil receipts pushed up Federally-collected revenue (gross) in February 2017 by 20.4 per cent to N545.05 billion.
Although the apex bank’s economic report last February posted on it’s website yesterday, attributed the increase relative to the preceding month level to the rise in receipts from both oil and non-oil components, it stated that the increase reflected the significant rise in receipts from domestic crude oil/gas sales and PPT/Royalties.
The report, however, noted that the N545.05 billion fell short of the 2017 provisional monthly budget estimate of N792.71 billion by 31.2per cent. “Gross oil receipts, at N292.82 billion or 53.7per cent of total revenue, fell below the provisional monthly budget estimate by 0.6, but was 37.9 per cent higher than the receipts last January.
At N252.24billion or 46.3per cent of the total revenue, gross non-oil revenue was below the 2017 provisional monthly budget estimate of N498.14 billion by 49.4 per cent. It, however, exceeded the receipts in January 2017 by 4.9 per cent,” the report said. The banking watchdog stated that the poor performance relative to the provisional budget: “ reflected the shortfall in most of the components due to the low economic activities in the country during the review period.”
It added that the estimated Federal Government retained revenue for the month of February 2017, at N194.38 billion, was below the 2017 provisional monthly budget estimate of N337.48 billion and the receipts in January 2017 by 42.4per cent and 5.9per cent, respectively. Of the total receipt, Federation Account accounted for 68.5per cent, while Exchange Gain, FGN Independent Revenue, Value Added Tax (VAT), Excess Crude, and NNPC refund accounted for 11.6, 6.5, 5.4, 4.7, and 3.3per cent, respectively.
The study stated that the estimated total expenditure of the Federal Government, at N599.30 billion, exceeded both the 2017 provisional monthly budget estimate of N522.64 billion and January 2017 level of N552.74 billion by 14.7 and 8.4per cent, respectively.
Recurrent and capital expenditure, accounted for 64.9, and 30.5 per cent, respectively, while transfers accounted for the balance of 4.6per cent of the total expenditure. A breakdown of the recurrent expenditure showed that non-debt obligation was 79.3per cent of the total, while debt service payments accounted for the balance of 20.7per cent.
