Uche Usim, Abuja
For more transparent dealing and avoidance of rancour, the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) is planning fresh guidelines for revenue remittances and withdrawals from the nation’s Excess Crude oil revenue Account (ECA).
Recall that an ad hoc committee was constituted by former Finance Minister Mrs Kemi Adeosun in July 2018 and came up with fresh guidelines.
It was saddled with the responsibility of identifying and recommending solutions for the plethora of complaints of various states via their finance commissioners, particularly the nine oil-producing ones, with regard to the procedure of transfers into and withdrawals from the ECA, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) and Royalty Accounts.
The ad hoc committee’s recommendations were contained in a report submitted to the FAAC last November on guidelines on transfers into and withdrawals from the accounts.
In the report, the committee recommended that any month where the net distributable revenues available for sharing by the federal, states and local governments from the Federation Account falls below N680 billion, funds should be withdrawn from the ECA to augment the shortfall to at least N680 billion.
Similarly, the committee recommended that if, on the other hand, the net distributable revenue is between N680 billion and N730 billion, up to about N50 billion, it should be transferred into the ECA as saving.
Besides, if the net distributable revenue for the month is between N730 billion and N830 billion, the committee recommended that up to about N100 billion should be transferred to the ECA, or a minimum of N150 billion, if the figure is above N830 billion.
Also, the committee spelled out new criteria for monthly revenue transfers into and withdrawals from the ECA.
According to the committee, henceforth, further transfers into the ECA should be made net of the 13 percent derivation, which component should be paid to the oil-producing states.
It recommended that a minimum monthly statutory revenue to be shared from the Federation Account by the three tiers of government has been pegged at about N680 billion.