By Femi Ogunshola
The House of Representatives ad-hoc Committee on the recovery of outstanding N2.6 trillion debts owed the Federal Government by Oil and Gas companies, has demanded evidence of taxes, royalties and levies paid by the companies.
Rep. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, who chaired the 18 member committee investigating the matter made the demand on Wednesday in Abuja.
She called on the companies to make appropriate submission and provide evidence of payments and outstanding from 2019 till date.
Onyejeocha said that failure to do this, the committee would consider other legislative approach to enforce full compliance of its directives by the invited companies and the government agencies.
She urged the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to furnish the payment records on field basis from 2019 till date as well as all outstanding as at March 12.
She said that NUPRC was also to provide detailed information of crude oil production and lifting, gas production and utilisation and gas flare including payment from 2019 till date.
Onyejeocha also asked the NNPC to provide details of 440 million dollars waived to Nigeria Petroleum Development Companies as well as profile outstanding debt owed to NUPRC, FIRS and other government revenue collecting agencies.
She said that it needed clarification on the deduction made on remittances to the federation account from domestic crude sales proceeds.
She said that the clarification should include detailed of NEEDS Assessment cost breakdown and procurement process on the selection of vendors for pipeline repairs and maintenance.
She said that detailed breakdown of crude and product losses pipeline break point and volume including third-party government agency validation certification should be provided.
Onyejeocha called on FIRS to also provide details payment and outstanding tax obligation as at Marh 16, including details of tax waiver given to oil and gas companies from 2019 till date.
She said that the Central Bank of Nigeria should also provide the bank statements of FIRS, NNPC, NUPRC for confirmation of receipts of outstanding liabilities from 2019 till date.
She said that the investigative hearing was not for the sake of it, adding that the committee was serious, saying “we are not too happy that we can’t make use of resources available to us.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the investigative hearing is based on the report of the National Extractive Industries Extractive Initiative (NEITI), that 77 Oil and Gas companies operating in Nigeria owe the Federal Government over N2.6 trillion. (NAN)
