Date: 2015-06-18

The National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday released a snapshot of the Internally Generated Revenue profile of 23 states of the federation for the year 2014, which generated N586.6bn in total in the fiscal period.

The IGR, according to the NBS report, was earned from four major sources. They are Pay-As-You-Earn, direct assessment, road taxes and other revenues. The bureau stated in the report, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja, that Lagos State recorded the highest IGR of N276.1bn in the period under review. The N276.1bn generated by Lagos last year was N108.1bn or 28.1 per cent lower than the N384.2bn, which the state earned as IGR in the 2013 fiscal period.

Further analysis revealed that the amount that Lagos earned in 2014 was also 47 per cent of what all the other 22 states collected as IGR in the same period.

The report stated that while the figures for the other 13 states were still being expected, Rivers State, with a total IGR of N89.1bn, followed on the revenue chart.

The N89.1bn earned by Rivers State represented an increase of N1.19bn when compared to the N87.91bn for 2013.

Others are Akwa Ibom, with N15.6bn; Anambra, N10.4bn; Bayelsa, N10.9bn; Enugu, N19.2bn; Katsina, N6.2bn; Kogi, N6.5bn; Ekiti, N3.4bn; Osun, N8.5bn; Oyo, N16.3bn; and Imo, N8.1bn.

The rest are Niger, N5.7bn; Plateau, N8.2bn; Zamfara, N3.1bn; Delta, N42.8bn; Benue, N8.2bn; Bauchi, N4.8bn; Kaduna, N12.7bn; Katsina, N6.2bn; Kebbi, N3.8bn; Nasarawa, N4.05bn; Ogun, N17.4bn; Sokoto, N5.6bn and Zamfara, N3.1bn.

The report listed the 13 states that had yet to provide details of their IGR for 2014 as Abia, Adamawa, Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Kwara, Ondo, Taraba and Yobe.

The IGR made by the states excludes the monthly allocations, which they receive from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee.

For instance, the sum of N7.75tn was shared among the three tiers of government in the 2014 fiscal period.

An analysis of the monthly distribution made by The Punch also showed that the N7.75tn distributed last year represented a decline of N150bn or 1.89 per cent over the N7.9tn, which the committee allocated in the 2013 fiscal period.

The Federation Account is currently being managed on a legal framework that allows funds to be shared under three major components, statutory allocation, Value Added Tax distribution and allocation made under the derivation principle.

Under statutory allocation, the Federal Government gets 52.68 per cent of the shared revenue; states, 26.72 per cent; and local governments, 20.60 per cent.

The framework also provides that Value Added Tax revenue be shared thus; Federal Government, 15 per cent; states, 50 per cent; and local governments, 35 per cent.

Similarly, extra allocation is given to the nine oil producing states based on the 13 per cent derivation principle.

A breakdown of the N7.75tn shared in 2014 showed that the month of June had the highest allocation of N755.95bn; while September with N693.53bn, and May with N683.89bn, followed, respectively.

The sum of N621.12bn was allocated in January; February had N641.29bn, while N641.38bn, N634.72bn and N654.58bn were distributed in March, April and July, respectively.

For the months of August, October, November and December, the committee distributed N611.76bn, N593.34bn, N628.77bn and N580.37bn in that order.