The Federal Government has grown its non oil revenue by 67 per cent to approximately N4tn quarter-on-quarter, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s third quarter report.
The report also showed that the Federal Government’s collected revenue increased by 50.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2023.
The CBN, in its third quarter economic report, noted that the revenue increased to N4.79tn from the prior quarter because of higher non-oil receipts but fell below the budget benchmark by 9.5 per cent.
“At N4,791.39bn, Federation Account receipt exceeded the level in Q22023 by 50.1 per cent but was below the benchmark by 9.5 per cent,” the report read.
It added that the improved performance reflected higher receipts from the Company Income Tax, Customs and Excise Duties and Value-Added Tax, Production Sharing Contract, and the 2023 interim dividend of N declaration by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
The CBN read in part, “Non-oil revenue continued to dominate federation revenue, accounting for 83.0 per cent, while oil revenue made up the balance of 17.0 per cent. Driven by receipts from production sharing contracts and dividends from NNPCL, oil revenue, at N814.23 billion, rose by 0.6 per cent above the level in the preceding quarter, but was below the target of N2,410.89 billion by 66.2 per cent.”
“Non-oil revenue, at N3,977.16 billion, was 66.9 per cent above the level in the preceding quarter and exceeded the target by 38.0 per cent, reflecting higher collections of CIT, Custom & Excise Duties, and VAT. The increase in receipts was driven by improved economic activities, seasonality in tax returns, particularly CIT; and improved efficiency in tax administration.”
The PUNCH reports that the removal of fuel subsidy and unification of foreign exchange policies by the current administration significantly increased accrued revenue to the federation account but added inflationary pains to the citizenry.
The Minister of Finance and Co-coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, at the Federal Account Allocation Committee retreat in November, revealed that the removal of fuel subsidy raised monthly Federation Revenue to an average of N1tn, in the last four months.
Despite these high earnings, the World Bank has accused the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited of not being transparent about the financial gains from fuel subsidy removal and remittances to the federation account.