•Report affirms non-sustainability of states without federal allocation
Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu states have emerged among the eight states in the country that recorded decline in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) between January and June 2018.
During the period under review, the 36 states of the federation and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) generated a total of N579.490 billion, compared with N453.833 billion posted in the corresponding period of 2017, representing 27.7 per cent growth.
While 28 of the states recorded growth in IGR, eight others, including Benue, Taraba, Kebbi and Kwara, fell short of their revenue generating statuses.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its report on IGR at state level for the first half of 2018, tracked the performance of Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory in terms revenue generation.Meanwhile, going by the revenue-to-debt ratio of some states, it is becoming obvious that some of the states of the federation would not survive without allocations from the federally collected revenue.
Worse still, many are already becoming incapable of paying monthly salaries to their workers, even with the monthly disbursements from the Federal Accounts Allocations Committee and spearheading the fight against wage increase agitations.With net allocations from FAAC to states estimated N1.23 trillion in the period under review, the total revenue available to the states during the period would is put at N1.74 trillion.
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States’ debts, as at June 30, 2018, were put at N3.47 trillion for the domestic category, beside a joint external debt with the Federal Government, estimated at N6.75 trillion.With domestic debts alone, an average of the states’ net revenue shows that for every naira earned, N2 debt obligation is tied with it, beside personnel and governance costs.
States’ revenue are generated majorly from Pay-As-You-Earn Tax, which hit N352.509 billion in the period under review; Direct Assessment, N26.293 billion; Road Taxes, N11.681 billion; Other Taxes, N84.033 billion; and revenues from Ministries, Departments and Agencies, N104.972 billion.
A further analysis of the NBS report showed that Lagos, Rivers, Ogun, Delta states and FCT were the top five performing sub-nationals in the first half of the year.Lagos State’s revenue rose by 16.88 per cent to N196.395 billion, to clinch the first position from N168.025 billion in the corresponding period of 2017.
Rivers, followed with N60.906 billion, with an increase of 36.13 per cent, from the N44.742 billion recorded last year, while Ogun State notched up by 6.7 per cent to N42.519 billion from N39.849 billion achieved in 2017.FCT generated N35.311 billion, trailed by Delta State, which recorded N29.797 billion, against N25.103 billion in 2017.In 2017, the sub-nationals generated N931.23 billion, which was an increase of 12.03 per cent from 2016 records and with the current performance there is high optimism that full year figures will exceed that of last year.
Source: G Business
