Edo receives N547.9bn from federation account, IGR, VAT in seven years – revenue boss

Edo State government said from 2008 to last June it received N547,931,662,882,11 billion revenues from the Federation Account, valued added tax (VAT) and internally generated revenue (IGR).

BusinessDay reports that this is the first time the state government would be broken its silence on the agitations by the people of the state, especially members of the state chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and civil societies to make public how much it had so far received as revenues from the Federal Allocation Account Committee, VAT, IGR, and other sources.

The PDP had on several political fora peddled different amounts so far received by the Adams Oshiomhole-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government in the past seven years.

Dan Orbih, state chairman of the PDP, had recently in a press conference, alleged that available records showed that N928 billion accrued to the state in the past seven years but only N268 billion could be accounted for in terms of projects execution and payment of salaries.

Orbih, who also alleged that the state governor had so far collected N42 billion as security votes, however, urged the state government to return the balance of N660 billion of the sum so far received to the state coffers.

Meanwhile, Oseni Elamah, executive chairman, Edo State Internal Revenue Service (EIRS), who disclosed the revenue that had so far accrued to the state since the past seven years in Benin City, said N547,931,662,882,11 billion had been received by the state government.

Elamah’s disclosure was contained in a paper, titled, “Internally Generated Revenue” during a colloquium with the theme, “The Edo Project: Defining the Issues and Addressing the Challenges Post 2016” to mark the seven anniversary of Adams Oshiomhole as governor of Edo State.

He said N379,988,065,364,10 billion was received from the Federation Account between 2008 to June this year, N112, 651,660,769,45 billion from IGR from 2008 to October 2015, and N55,291,936,748,56 billion from VAT from 2008 to June 2015, respectively.

The EIRS boss gave the breakdown of the annual total revenue receipts by the state in the past years to include, N42,779,581,480,96 billion in 2008, N51,393,578,181,44 billion in 2009, N58,363,866,284,00 billion in 2010.

Others are, N87,158,015,179,96 billion in 2011, N90,391,052,466,67 billion in 2012, N92,599,407,605,10 billion in 2013, N85,291,862,196,32 billion in 2014, and N39,954,229,487,66 billion in 2015, respectively.