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| Rauf Aregbesola, Osun State Governor |
The Osun State government received nothing from the federation
account in April 2016 after appropriate deductions by the federal
government.
The deduction from Osun was part of the N32 billion deducted by the
federal government from states as repayment for bailout funds and other
loans extended to the affected states and the federal government.
For Osun, the state’s allocation of about N2.03 billion from the
federal revenue was insufficient to offset its total debt to the federal
government of about N2.391 billion.
At the end of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC)
meeting for April 2016, the state went home empty handed. It still,
however, owes the federal government about N361 million which will be
deducted from subsequent months.
The Director, Osun State Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Semiu
Okanlawon, did not respond to calls to inquire how the state government,
which has had difficulty paying workers salaries, would cope without
its April allocation.
Mr. Okanlawon did not also respond to a text message sent to his telephone on Sunday.
Apart from Osun, other states that had huge deductions by the federal government include Bayelsa, Cross River, and Ogun.
Bayelsa had N3.207 billion, 66.7 per cent, deducted from N4.812 billion allocated to it in April.
Other deductions included Cross River State, N1.405 billion (63.46
per cent); Ogun, N1.185 billion (57.2 percent); Plateau, N1.248 billion
(56.52 per cent); and Ekiti, N1.067 billion (55.33 per cent).
Seven states – Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Jigawa, Kogi, Lagos, Rivers, and
Yobe – along with the Federal Capital Territory did not have deductions,
as they did not collect the bail-out funds used for the deduction.
Apart from bail-out funds, which took about N3.078 billion from the
affected states, loans the states are now repaying to the federal
government include debts on Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria
(AMCON) loans, commercial agricultural credit scheme, bond issuance
programme, obligations to contractors, and deduction from excess crude
account.
Other deductions include refund/payment arrears of derivation,
foreign loans, special intervention/flood management projects, the
national FADAMA project and reconstruction of commercial bank loans into
FGN bonds.
While speaking on how Bayelsa State would cope after losing
two-thirds of its allocation to debt repayment, the Commissioner for
Information, Jonathan Obuebite, said the state has adopted strategies to
shore its internally generated revenue base.
Apart from slashing the salaries of political office holders and
members of the state executive council by 50 per cent, Mr. Obuebite said
the state government reviewed its tax collection strategies to capture
evaders.
He said since the adoption of new revenue generation strategies, the
state’s revenue yield improved from about N100 million per month to
about N500 million.
“Our target is to hit N2 billion every month,” he said. “Part of our
strategy to realize that target is to get all the oil companies doing
business in the state, including Shell, to pay their corporate tax to
the state.
“Already, we are in court to get all the companies to begin to pay
taxes in their area of operation. The state will be comfortable with
that arrangement.”
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