Bayelsa declares N1.86b IGR in October

The Bayelsa State Government has declared a record all time high Internally-Generated Revenue of N1.86bn for the month of October.

The Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral John Jonah (retd) in a transparency briefing said that the increase was as a result of government’s efforts to get oil companies to pay their financial obligations to the state.

He said government engaged oil companies operating the state in an aggressive and friendly negotiation, adding that Chevron was convinced to pay the state its share of obligations.

He said the IGR would increase significantly when other companies especially the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) toe the path of Chevron.

He said the state got N11.8bn gross inflow in October including statutory allocations N2.3bn; derivation, N7bn; Value Added Tax (VAT), N1.1bn adding that after deductions of N1.9bn, the net inflow stood at N10bn.

Jonah said with the IGR of N1.8bn, refunds of N16bn and revenue from other sources, the balance available for expenditures was N12.3bn.

But he said after paying bank loans of N3.3bn; civil servants’ salaries, N3.7bn; IGR collections, N148m; bank charges, N10m and turnover N80.4m, the balance stood at N4.7bn.

The deputy governor, however, said that the government incurred deficit of N2bn following capital expenditures of N4.4bn and recurrent of N2.3bn.
He said the September balance of N5bn cleared the deficit leaving N2.9bn in the state coffers.

In a related development, the state government has explained that the November salary for civil servants had yet to be paid because the Federal Ministry of Finance has not released the monthly federal allocation and the expected Paris Club debt refund to the state.

A statement by the State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said the funds due to state governments had not been released because of the failure of the Federal Government to hold the crucial meeting of the Federal Accounts and Allocation Committee (FAAC) for the month of November.

He explained that the non-release of the funds was responsible for the delay in the payment of the salaries of workers for the month of November.