DAILY TRUST
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and 13 other agencies allegedly failed to remit $9.85 billion in revenue to the federation account in one year, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) said yesterday.
NEITI, in a 2021 Oil and Gas Industry Report, which audited the activities of 69 companies and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), 13 government entities and one state-owned enterprise, NNPC, said the unremitted funds accounted for 8.47 per cent of the $23bn total revenue generated by the federal government during the year under review.
NEITI specifically said NPCL could not account for $1.951 billion from the revenue it generated for the federal government in 2021.
It, however, did not name the other defaulting agencies.
The report, which was unveiled in Abuja yesterday, showed that $286. 423m was unremitted export crude sales; $871.145m unremitted domestic crude sales, $722.596m LNG dividend, $859,583 miscellaneous revenue, $24.332m transportation revenue, and $45.758m unremitted domestic gas proceeds. The report also revealed that the NNPCL spent $6.931bn as expenditure during the period.
It added that only $13.2bn, making 57.27 per cent of total revenue, was remitted into the federation account.
Other details
The report added that the total outstanding taxes payable to FIRS as at July 31, 2023, was $13.591m, while the total amount of outstanding federation revenue payable to Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) as at December 31, 2022, was $8.251bn, with over 80 per cent of the outstanding liabilities owed by NNPC.
It noted that the non-payment of the funds as at when due was a constraint on revenue flow to the federation account.
The report also revealed that between 2006 and 2021, a total sum of N8.1trn was spent on fuel subsidy, with N1.1trn spent in 2021 alone.
The report called for collaboration between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in the recovery of outstanding NDDC levies, stating that there would be a need for further reconciliations of payments made by companies to EFCC to determine amounts recovered and amounts outstanding (if any) in the EFCC account because the NDDC could not provide independent records of such payments.
The report observed that none of the four refineries in the country was operational in 2021 despite the NNPC spending about N200bn within 2020 and 2021 on refinery rehabilitation.
It said Nigeria lost 22,735 barrels or 3.72 million litres of crude oil in 2021, with 410 incidents reported, which was a 22 per cent rise in incidents when compared to 18,563 barrels or three million litres recorded in 2020 in 384 incidents.
‘Why we released our findings’
Commenting on the report, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, said the initiative provided information and data on Nigeria’s oil and gas sector with special attention in helping the government to recover resources that it needs to address the numerous national development issues, especially poverty reduction through resource mobilisation and deployment. Orji said the report was prepared in line with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Standard 2019 and the NEITI Act, 2007.
On his part, Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr Simbi Wabote, said the report should not be thrown under the carpet, and encouraged the National Assembly to discuss its findings during plenary to recover unremitted funds by the NNPC and private companies.
We believe in transparency – NNPCL
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