Bayelsa State government has advocated the practice of what it terms “structured federalism” to enable states in Nigeria to boost their revenues and become more viable.

The Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Maxwell Ebibai, who stated this yesterday at the Transparency Briefing in Yenagoa, the state capital, posited that the Petroleum Exploration Act deprives the state from collecting certain levels of Land Use charges to enhance its revenues.

The Commissioner who gave account of the state’s income and expenditure profile for three months of August, September and October 2023, said as of the end of October this year, the balance in its coffers was N3.3billion.

Ebibai said there was the need to review the Constitution of the country to allow states to get direct access to revenues accruing to the states on some resources such as petroleum.

The Commissioner who was reacting to an assessment by the Economic Confidential in its 2022 Annual States Viability Index (ASVI) report, which listed Bayelsa among six states that were allegedly financially insolvent insisted that the state was stable in its finances.

He said the publication focused only on federal allocations and internally generated revenues to determine a state’s viability without considering how resources were being expropriated by the Federal Government.

He said: “Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri had reiterated the call for the practice of true federalism and restructuring at the 124th state executive council meeting held a few days ago in Government House, Yenagoa.”

On the income and revenue profile of the state for the months of August, September and October this year, the Finance Commissioner said the closing balance during the three months was N3.3bn.

According to Ebibai, for October this year, the statutory allocation was N2.2bn, derivation was N11.5bn, Value Added Tax (VAT) was N2.9bn, and Exchange gain of N5.3bn as total receipt from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) was N21.8bn in addition to Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) which was N1.3bn.

He said total revenue was N33.8bn while total payments stood at N13.3bn, recurrent payments was N4.8bn, capital expenditure stood at N18.6bn amounting to N23.3bn.

Earlier in his remarks, the Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Mr. Ayibaina Duba, reiterated the state government’s commitment to transparent and accountable utilisation of the state’s resources.(THE NATION)