Total Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) revenue component of disbursements by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) to the three tiers of government: Federal Government, states and local government councils (LGCs), rose by 17.38 percent to N212.69 billion in 2024 from N181.21 billion in the preceding year, findings by New Telegraph has shown.
An analysis of communiqués of the Federation Account Allocation Committee meetings and relevant National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data for 2024, indicates that the EMTL revenue disbursed to the three tiers of government amounted to N15.92 billion in January 2024;
N15.16 billion in February; N14.75 billion in March; N18.02 billion in April; N15.15 billion in May; N15.78 billion in June; N19.60 billion in July, N15.02 billion in August, N19.21 billion in September; N17.82 billion in October; N15.05 billion in November and N31.21 billion in December.
This means that total EMTL revenue disbursed to the three tiers of government last year amounted to N212.69 billion.
The EMTL, which is a singular and one-off levy of N50 on the recipient of any electronic receipts or transfers of N10,000 and above, was introduced by the Federal Government via the Finance Act of 2020 as a way of generating more revenue for its activities by tapping into the growth in electronic funds transfer in the country.
For equivalent receipts or transfers carried out in other currencies, the levy is charged at the exchange rates determined by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The levy, which applies to all account types, came into effect in January 2021 and is an amendment of the Stamp Duty Act, under which, N50 used to be levied on electronic payments above N1,000.
Under the Finance Act 2020, revenue derived from the EMT levy is shared based on derivation and distributed at 15 per cent to the Federal Government and Federal Capital Territory, 50 percent to the state governments and 35 per cent to the 774 local governments.
Thus, while announcing in the press release he issued at the end of the January 2025 meeting of the FAAC, last Friday, that a total sum of N1.424 trillion was to the three tiers of government as Federation Allocation for the month of December 2024 from a gross total of N2.310 trillion, the Director, Information and Public Relations at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mohammed Manga, also provided details of disbursements to the three tiers of government from the EMTL.
