Fakoyejo OlalekanOver N1.6 trillion is yet to be remitted by the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) into the Federation Account as of June 2023.
The breakdown of the funds yet to be remitted by the revenue-generating agencies shows NNPCL accounts for N1,439,662,970,681, FIRS N193,141,126,020.64 and the NUPRC N339,676,365.01.
This was disclosed by the members of the Post-Mortem Sub-Committee (PMSC) of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). NNPC, FAAC and the NUPRC are the revenue-generating agencies of the FAAC.
“The total outstanding due to the Federation Account from the Revenue-Generating Agencies as at April 2023 were $1,365,399,180.04 and N1,632,804,096,701.64,” the PMSC headed by former Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Kabir Mashi, disclosed at the last meeting in Abuja, the Nation Newspaper reported on Monday.
Absolving FIRS of blame, Johannes Tobi Wojuola, the Special Assistant on Media to FIRS Chairman, said all tax remittances collected by the FIRS are paid into the CBN Federation Account due to the nature of the collection process of the tax agency.
Explaining the reason for the delay, Wojuola stated that it was due to the remittance agreement the NNPC and the International Oil Companies (IOCs) had, “at the centre of these outstanding figures is unpaid monies by offtakers of crude oil sold by the NNPCL.
“NUPRC and FIRS do not have mandates to trade oil. IOCs, after mining pay their royalties, Education Tax and Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) to the Federal Government in crude oil. This crude oil is taken to be sold by the NNPCL (because they are the only government entity that is authorised to sell crude oil).
“Thereafter the proceeds are paid to the NUPRC and FIRS as the case may be (royalties to NUPRC and Education Tax and Petroleum Profit Tax to the FIRS),” he said.
He further justified the delay by disclosing: “The payment dates on some of these lifted crude have not yet mature. These outstanding payments are a part of the FAAC process, and have been the case for a while,” adding, “every month outstanding payments by the NNPCL under the arrangement it has with IOCs are settled. By next month, due payments would be settled as has been the case.”
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