Bayelsa state government Tuesday accused the federal government of illegally deducting four per cent as fuel subsidy from its monthly allocation, amounting to over N450billion in the last 13 years.
The state Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Maxwell Ebibai, stated this in Yenagoa during the monthly transparency briefing for the month of August 2019.
Ebibai said the deduction was made without the approval of the Council of States, which dated back to 2006 after the debt relief granted by the Paris Club to the country during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
The fuel subsidy, according to him, was being deducted from the 13 per cent derivation with adverse effect on the economy of the states in the South -south region.
Ebibai alleged that the federal government had been making withdrawals from the Excess Crude Account to fund petroleum subsidy, arms purchase and other activities that do not have any direct bearing on the oil producing states, thereby denying them of their full 13 per cent derivation.
The finance commissioner, who said there was an improvement in the state’s allocation for the month of August as against that of July 2019, however, noted that the Governors Forum and the Council of States would deliberate on the matter.
“We noticed that there was a bit of improvement with the derivation figure for August compared to July. It is important that we highlight that for a long time, under the pretext that we are saving for the rainy day, the federal government used monies in the Excess Crude Account for activities such as petroleum subsidy, arms purchase and others.
“Some states are contributing unfairly to those activities where we use that money for things like petroleum subsidy and other so-called critical government expenses that do not relate to the states.
“So, that battle has been on. We have managed to reach some consensus as regards that. But if we want to save money in the excess crude account, let the 13 per cent due to the states be given to them, so that we know we are contributing at par with our colleagues based on what is received.
“By recent calculations, from the 13 per cent derivation money that has passed through the excess crude account that the people of Bayelsa have not enjoyed the benefits amount to about N450billion. That is what, in the name of one nation, we are subsiding.
