FG, states, LGs share N606bn dividend from national income in April

The national government known more widely as federal, along with the two sub-nationals, state and local governments shared over N606 billion as dividends from the income of the people of Nigeria in the month of April.

Meeting virtually, as Covid-19 safety measures prevents meetings in large groupings, the committee responsible for the sharing, without the presence of shareholders (Nigerians),The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee,said the specific amount of April dividends shared by the three tiers of government was N606.196 billion.

In a statement issued at the weekend in Abuja, Hassan Dodo, director of information in the ministry of finance, budget and national planning,said Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, the permanent secretary in the ministry, chaired the virtual meeting.

He said the amount of dividend shared was earned from value added tax, exchange gain, solid mineral revenue, excess bank charges, and excess oil revenue, but he did not disclosed the costs involved in securing the final April dividends that were shared to the three tiers of government.

But he disclosed that following laid down sharing formula, the N606.196 billion dividend was shared in the following order: that the federal government received N169.831 billion, the states got N86.140 billion, while the local government councils had N66.411 billion and the oil-producing states received N32.895 billion as 13 per cent derivation.

The director, however, disclosed that the cost of collection of Federal Inland Revenue Service Refund and Allocation to North East Development Commission and Transfer to Excess Oil Revenue was N15.134 billion.

“The gross revenue available from the VAT for April 2020 was N94.495 billion as against the N120.268 billion distributed in the preceding month of March, resulting in a decrease of N25.772 billion.

“The distribution is as follows; federal government got N13.182 billion, the states received N43.941 billion, local government councils took N30.758 billon.

“The distributed statutory revenue of N370.411billion received for the month was lower than the N597.676 billion received for the previous month by N227.265 billion,” he stated.

He said that petroleum profit tax, companies’ income tax, import and export duties, oil and VAT, all recorded a decrease.