As the controversy over alleged non-remittance of N20billion to the federation account by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) continues, states on Saturday insisted the money must be remitted without further delays
Chairman of the Finance Commissioners Forum, Mr. Mamood Yunusa, explained in Abuja that the NNPC must pay fully.
He said: “Based on all provable assumption parameters, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is to remit N60 billion as royalty based on the verbal admission of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
“And based on the MTEF submitted by NNPC, the Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) expected was to be 1.46 multiplied by 60 billion amounting to N87.6 billion.
“The sum of PPT and royalty originally expected in the federation account is N147 as against the N127 billion paid by NNPC.”
Yunusa said the national oil company remitted N127 billion as May earnings instead of N147 billion, leaving a shortfall of N20 billion.
He recalled that at last week’s inconclusive FAAC meeting NNPC “claimed it spent N3.5 billion on product leakages, pipeline vandalism, but the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) an agency that is supposed to keep such record claimed ignorance of the amount.”
Yunusa said FAAC got more revenue from NNPC when crude oil was N50/barrel but now receives far less when the commodity is almost N80/barrel.
He said that as “equal stakeholders in the business, NNPC owes it a duty to Nigerians in the spirit of openness and transparency and by the Act that established it to be open and transparent to all stakeholders.
