Finance minister reveals date to begin deduction of N614bn bailout funds to states

The Federal Government of Nigeria has revealed a date to begin the deduction of the bail out funds to states of the federation which was issued in 2016.

The date for the deduction was made known by the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed ‎who was speaking at a Public Consultative Forum on the draft 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) in Abuja, on Tuesday.

According to the minister, the deductions will begin in September.

She also added that the deduction of the bailout funds amounting to N614 billion, which was given to states for payment of salaries of workers, three years ago, would commence in the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) provision for states.

The minister who revealed that the refund would not form part of the revenue for funding the budget also added that the bailout would be deducted from source and remitted to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

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“It was a loan which was advanced by the CBN and the repayment will be made to the same CBN.

“So the recovery process for us is to deduct from the FAAC allocation to the states and remit same to the CBN.

“We are going to start these remittances by the next FAAC. So there will be no requirement for us to consider the Fiscal Sustainability Plan (FSP) implementation.

“We want the states to stay on the path of fiscal sustainability, but it will not be a condition for the deduction. We will deduct direct from source and remit to the CBN,” the minister said.

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