Kwara State executive council yesterday approved for the state government to offset its local debt stock with the outstanding payments of its share of the Federal Government’s unauthorised deductions from Excess Crude Accounts (ECA) between 2009 and 2015.
In a memo presented to the executive council, Commissioner for Finance, Mrs. Olasumbo Oyeyemi, urged the council to authorise the Federal Government to settle and defray the state government’s domestic debt to it from the outstanding balance of 60 per cent due to the state from the refunds on the unauthorised debits in the ECA, petroleum profit tax and royalties account.
The memo said the balance of the debits, if any, would be credited/remitted to the state government’s account by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and “where the 60 per cent cannot defray all the state government’s domestic debt to the Federal Government, the Federal Ministry of Finance will continue the deduction directly from the FAAC share of the state government as being done before”.