Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account (ECA) balance now stands at $274.407 million, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) announced on Thursday.
The ECA saves the difference between the estimated price and the actual price of crude, and as at last Wednesday had slumped from a previous balance of $497m reported at the beginning of the year.
The account which states had particularly contended as illegal has repeatedly faced series of allegations accountability, transparency, mismanagement and gross abuse.
There are now concerns that the new low levels strip Nigeria of critical buffers and exposes the struggling economy to dire pressure in case of any serious financial crisis.
As at last December, the ECA had fallen from $2.319 billion the previous month to $631 million, leveling to $144 million as of June 19, 2019.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, said last December that the withdrawals were made to settle the last tranche of the Paris Club refund.
Meanwhile, the three federation units on Thursday shared a total of N769.523 billion for the month of July 2019, comprising revenue from Value Added Tax (VAT), Exchange Gain and Gross Statutory Revenue.
The Committee announced that as at 22nd August 2019, the balance in the Excess Crude Account
The gross statutory revenue for the month of July 2019 was N674.365 billion. It was higher than the N652.949 billion received in the previous month by N21.416 billion.
For the month of July, revenue from the Value Added Tax (VAT) was lower than what was received in the preceding month.
A gross revenue of N94.159 billion was available from the VAT as against N108.631 billion distributed in the preceding month, resulting in a decrease of N14.472 billion. Exchange Gain yielded a total revenue of N0.999 billion.
A communique issued by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) confirmed that from the total revenue of N769.523 billion, the Federal Government received N299.799 billion, the States received N190.381 billion, and the Local Government Councils received N143.569 billion.
The Oil Producing States received N42.917 billion as 13% derivation revenue and the Revenue Generating Agencies received N92.857 billion as cost of revenue collection.
A breakdown of the distribution showed that from the gross statutory revenue of N674.365 billion, the Federal Government received N285.767 billion, the States received N144.945 billion, the Local Government Councils received N111.746 billion.
Oil Producing States received N42.816 billion as 13% derivation revenue and the Revenue Collecting Agencies received N89. 091 billion as cost of collection.
From the N94.159 billion Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue, the Federal Government received N13. 559 billion, the States received N45.197 billion, the Local Government Councils received N31.638 billion and the Revenue Generating Agencies received N3.766 billion.
Onyinye Nwachukwu, Abuja
