El-Rufai Attacks NNPC Again, Blames Firm For Unpaid Salaries In States

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State took another swipe at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited led by Mele Kyari.

During the 2022 Tax Dialogue organised by the Kaduna State Revenue Service on Monday, El-Rufai said NNPC Limited’s failure has rendered some states poorer.

He explained that many states in the country are in severe financial distress due to NNPC Limited’s failure to remit money into the Federation Account this year.

Therefore, some governors are unable to fulfil their social contracts with residents of their states, such as payment of salaries to workers.

It was learnt that revenues and taxes generated by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) are what the federal and state governments now survive on.

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El-Rufai renewed his face-off with NNPC Limited a month after both parties publicly criticised each other, with the Kaduna State governor throwing the first punch.

El-Rufai had stated: “This year, NNPC has not brought N20,000 to the federation account. We are living on taxes. It is PPTs, royalties, income tax and VAT that is keeping this country going because NNPC claims that subsidy has taken all the oil revenues. I don’t believe it.”

The oil corporation fired back at the governor saying El-Rufai was contradicting himself by telling the public the NNPC Limited hadn’t remitted money, while still stating that the government was relying on PPTs and Royalties.

”He  said NNPCL has not been making remittance to FAAC and in the same breath, he said it is income from PPT, royalty and income tax that is keeping this country.

“The confusion is where do the PPT, royalty and income tax come from? The PPT is the petroleum profit tax, have you seen anybody pay profit tax without making profit? Or pay Royalty without production?

“These things don’t just fall from the sky. These payments are possible because somebody is working hard to make it possible,” the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Garba Muhammad, said.