Asks For Direct Assessment Of 13% Derivation.

  The Bayelsa State Government has faulted the report by some non- governmental organizations which analyzed that Bayelsa State is not economically viable maintaining that they rated the state out of context.

The state   however asked that the Federal government should  allow the state to assess its 13% derivation funds directly instead of giving them whatever they want without the state knowing actually how much is accrued to them on monthly basis.

Bayelsa State Commissioner for Finance, Maxwell Ebibai speaking on behalf of the state government on Thursday in Yenagoa during a transparency briefing which reels out the income and expenditure of the state  for the months of August, September and October, 2023, asked that Bayelsa state especially should be allowed to be on  the  platform where it will know actually how much is accrued to the state monthly arguing that with that, the state will be more viable than anybody can think of.

He argued that they should also make it constitutional for them to be collecting the 13% derivation directly the way the federal allocation commission releases the monthly allocation.

 Ebibai said “If you are rating the sustainability of a sate based on internal revenue, let’s face the fact, internal revenue is collected on the basis of constitution.

 “The constitution recognizes that we are entitled to 13% revenue and the federal government is only an agent of collection of the 13% revenue on behalf of the state. It’s our revenue, it is not federation revenue. 

“The state should be allowed to  collect this money directly because now, we are in a situation where it is the figures that they feed us with that we take as 13% figures. If we are allowed to be on  some of our platforms to know what is actually going out of our platforms, we will be all comfortable. We strongly believe that is wrong for you to rely on constitution to determine the basis for internal revenue and when it gets to 13%, you now take the decision that the constitution is not relevant. And on that basis, you pass assessment on viable or nonviable. It is completely unfair and it is something that is not acceptable to us.

“You said 65% is internal revenue and you know that we are disadvantaged in this part of the country because the petroleum exploration act deprives us from collecting certain levels of land use tax. 

“We are in court because of that, we are expecting the court to determine that, so you take away our ability to generate internal revenue and then somebody sits somewhere after the federation has arbitrarily taken away our ability to generate revenue and you are judging.  It  is very unfair and I think this is an advocacy not just for the government but for the people of Bayelsa State. 

Advising all Bayelans, he said instead of looking at the negative aspect that the state is not sustainable, “we should rather face the fact and let it be addressed. We should advocate on what the right thing is and let the right  thing be done. If the right things are done, the state will be sustainable.

 He said that as at September ending, the state closed the month with N3,365,000.

Speaking earlier, the commissioner for information, orientation and strategy  Ayiba Duba had thanked the press for being involved in  the prosperity administration’s electioneering campaigns.

 He said “I want to thank you for the work you do and to tell you that as we march into the second term, we  will all march in together and I pray that the synergy  and  relationship we form will take to us to  greater heights.