There are concerns in government circles that the
country's revenue projection for the 2013 fiscal year may
not be realised.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the gross oil revenue
accruing to the Federation Account had dwindled
seriously in recent times.
The drop in revenue has raised fears that the Federal
Government may not be able to implement the 2013
budget. Sources in government attributed the drop to
massive oil theft, illegal bunkering and pipeline
vandalism.
Figures obtained by this newspaper, showing the monthly
allocations to the three tiers of government by the
Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, revealed that
the country only realised N3.893tn as gross federally
collected revenue in the first six months of 2013.
This sum, according to an analysis of the document,
showed a shortfall of N321.73bn against the projected
revenue of N4.215tn that was projected for the country
for the six months period.
According to the FAAC document, the monthly budgeted
gross federally collected revenue for the country is put
at N702.54bn. This is expected to be realised from three
revenue sources - mineral revenue, N465.057bn; non-
mineral revenue, N158.711bn and Value Added Tax,
N78.77bn.
However, further investigations revealed that the
N3.893tn revenue for the first half of this year was
earned as follows: January, N651.26bn; February,
N571.7bn; and March, N595.71bn. In the months of April,
May and June, revenue receipts by the country were
N621.07bn,
N590.77bn and N863.02bn respectively.
In the same vein, the country recorded significant
revenue drop between January and May.
The shortfalls were recorded as follows; January
N51.28bn; February N130.84bn; March N106.84bn, April
N81.47bn and May N111.77bn. Curiously, there was a
surplus of N160.48bn in June as the country's revenue
receipts of N863.02bn exceeded the budgeted sum of
N702.54bn owing to completion of pipeline repairs in
some terminals.
It was gathered that unless the revenue generating
agencies step up their efforts and leakages in the oil
sector were taken care off, the country might only
realise about N7.78tn for the 2013 fiscal year instead of
the projected N8.43tn going by the first-half revenue
trend.
During the week, the Coordinating Minister for the
Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala, said that the country was losing 400,000 barrels
of crude oil per day to illegal bunkering and vandalism of
oil pipelines.
Okonjo-Iweala, who appeared before the House of
Representatives Joint Committee on Appropriation/
Finance in Abuja last Tuesday, had said, "We are losing
revenue; 400,000 barrels of crude oil are lost on a daily
basis due to illegal bunkering, vandalism and production
shut-in.
"I have to clarify that it is not as if the entire 400,000
barrels is stolen, no. What happens is that whenever the
pipelines are attacked and oil is taken, there is a total
shut down. All the quantity of oil produced for that day
will be lost because it means government cannot sell it
and it means a drop in revenue."
The minister explained that this was the reason
President Goodluck Jonathan sought to amend the 2013
Appropriation Act as against sending a supplementary
budget to the National Assembly.
She pointed out that with the revenue shortfalls currently
facing the country, there was no way the government
could afford a supplementary budget.
Okonjo-Iweala told the committee, "You cannot talk of
supplementary budget when your revenue is going down.
That is why we are asking for an amendment to restore
the money that was removed."
Worried by the shortfall in revenue, the Federal
Government had constituted a committee headed by the
Governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Isa Yuguda, to address
the oil theft problem.
Other members of the committee are the Governors of
Delta, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan; Anambra, Mr. Peter Obi;
and Gombe,
Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo.
The rest are the Minister of Finance, Director General of
the Budget Office of the Federation, Dr. Bright Okogu;
and the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah
Otunla.
Okonjo-Iweala said the committee had also resolved to
address the root cause of the revenue challenges facing
the country.
Reacting to this development, the Managing Director,
Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck
Rewane, warned that a revenue drop could hurt the
nation's economy.
Rewane said, "If indeed about 400,000 barrels of crude
oil are lost every day, that's about 20 per cent of daily oil
production. Remember crude oil is the mainstay of
Nigeria's economy. If they take away 20 per cent of your
salary, you know how that will affect you. Nigeria cannot
survive on what will be left if that amount of revenue is
lost every day."
But a public intellectual and economist, Henry Boyo,
expressed surprise that Nigeria had lost so much to oil
bunkering despite the huge sums government had spent
to secure oil facilities and pipelines.
"It is quite surprising that despite the huge amount that
has been spent by the Federal Government to put in
place security patrols on the coasts of the Niger Delta,
oil bunkering has reached this stage. ," he said.
Also, political economist, Pat Utomi, said the
diversification of the nation's revenue streams, and not
worries about a drop in revenue, should be government's
immediate concern.
He said, "I have always belonged to the school of
thought that suggests that only a small percentage of the
oil revenue should be shared between the tiers of
government
"I have even suggested, even though with tongue in
cheek, that Nigeria should cap its oil wells so that we
can make a conscious effort at developing other sectors.
All kinds of individuals who should not have been
anywhere near governance are running to become public
servants because of oil revenue.
"We have been killing other sectors of our economy.
Maybe we need to be broke to return to our senses and
dedicate more time to other sector such as agriculture,
and manufacturing," the economist said.

Source: mobile.punchng.com/output.php?link=http://www.punchng.com/news/fg-in-cash-trouble/

This is serious. I pity this country call Nigeria.

God bless Nigeria...all symptoms of backwardness may persist but we are moving forward...God has not stopped working over this nation.

We are at the right country...I refuse to curse Nigeria. What about you?

Fresh air all around

According to late Sani Abacha, 'print more cash'

bcomputer101:
Worried by the shortfall in revenue, the Federal Government had constituted a committee headed by the Governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Isa Yuguda, to address the oil theft problem.

Okonjo-Iweala said the committee had also resolved to address the root cause of the revenue challenges facing the country.

It is inexcusable for the government to blame the current shortfall in revenue on crude oil theft and sundry excuses.

This is what you get when you operate a monocultural economy with oil as the main stay.

It's time the government put on a thinking cap, evaluate the situation critically and aggressively push for the diversification of the economy through well-thought-out policies that will open up other sectors like Agriculture, Solid Minerals etc.

This is the only way the glory of the country can be restored to what it used to be before the discovery of oil, which incidentally has become our greatest albatross ...