Nigeria will survive if US stops importation of crude oil - FG

THE Federal Government has declared that the Nigerian economy will not collapse if the United States of America stops importation of crude oil from Nigeria.
Minister of State for Finance, Dr Yerima Ngama, speaking on Thursday shortly after the meeting of Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) in Abuja said the reason for the Excess Crude Account (ECA) was to take care of the exigencies.
According to him, the reason people have crisis is when anticipated occurrences are not taken of, stressing that such shocks has been taken care of in the budget.
The Minister acknowledged the fact that such shortfall in demand will surely have impact in the economy.
“We don’t normally spend all our income. That is why we do not really spend all that we produce. We have taken the slight slow down into account in the budget,” he said.
On how much is left in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) after such drawdowns, Ngama explained that what was left in the account at the end of December was N9.24 billion but it was drawn down to N8.24 billion. However, he said it has risen again to N9.2 billion.
However, chairman of Finance Commissioners Forum, Mr Eze Echesi, clarified reports that the N1 billion request made by state governments was not only meant for the states, adding that local governments were also going to benefit from the fund.
He said the committee decided that remittances from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) be made on time and that states should make the best use of their funds.
The minister said the sum of N575.464 billion was distributed among the three tiers of government in January.
In a statement, the AGF, Mr Jonah Otunla, said the total distributable revenue for January, which included the costs of collection to both the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) four per cent and the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), seven per cent, amounted to N575.4 billion.
This amount, he said, was shared according to the existing formula, with the Federal Government taking N216.5 billion; state governments received a collective cheque of N109.8 billion; local governments got N84.66 billion, while the balance of N47.43 billion was distributed as the 13 per cent oil and gas mineral revenue to the oil and gas producing states.
To make up the figures, N65.29 billion was shared by the three tiers of government as proceeds from the Value Added Tax (VAT), while N3.545 billion was injected into the monthly distributable funds as augmentation from the Excess Crude Account.
N35.54 billion was shared from the SURE-P funds and another N7.61 billion, the monthly refund from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), was also shared by the three tiers of governments.
Ngama also disclosed that for January, the sum of N651.26 billion was realized as gross revenue, which was higher than the N581.05 billion realised in December 2012.
He attributed the increase in gross revenue “to the significant increase recorded in the Petroleum Profit Tax for January, as a result of upward review of estimates and payments by the NNPC Production Sharing Contracts (PSC and MCA)