Nigeria records N700bn Revenue Shortfall in five months
Gross Revenue Collections of Nigeria between January and May this year have recorded a shortfall of N700.879 billion, which is put as 14.68 percent of the total sum, a report of the House of Representatives committee on finance revealed.
According to the report, the gross revenue budget for fiscal year 2013 is N11.453 trillion which gives a monthly average of N956.458 billion, therefore the amount collected should have been N4.772 trillion, but it was discovered to be N4.071 billion.
Chairman of the committee, Rep Abdulmuminu Jibril (PDP, Kano) who presented the report before the House during plenary said there was significant variance between what was collected in 2012 and that of this year.
He gave the monthly breakdown of collections with variations as January 2013 (N856.082 billion), 2012 (N843.082 billion); February 2013 (N791.670 billion), 2012 (N951.198 billion); March 2013 (N805.474 billion), 2012 (N982.342 billion); April (N826.238 billion), (N839.004 billion); May 2013 (N791.947 billion), 2012 (N765.859 billion) with the total variance put as 41.23 percent.
In the sector analysis of oil revenue collections, the variance between 2012 and 2013 was given as N384.846 billion with 50.69 percent from January to April of the two years.
For non-oil revenue collections, the variance between 2012 and 2013 stands at N144.85 billion from January to May.
Rep Jibril in his submission said: “As at May 2013, oil revenue collections are below collections of the same period in 2012 and also below budgeted projections for 2013,” adding that “The Ministry of Finance and NNPC are on the media on a daily basis highlighting the worrisome issue of crude oil losses and pipeline thefts.”
He noted that the oil revenue benchmark for 2013 was higher than that of 2012, yet the revenue generated is less, which he said highlighted the problems caused by reduced production levels.
He informed further that despite the committee’s efforts to ensure compliance with government directives on remittances, collections are down by about 20 percent last year.
