The total unremitted revenues to the federal government by some government agencies and companies in the oil and gas sector in the year 2021 have risen to about $9.85billion.
The figure among other information and data on Nigeria’s petroleum sector was contained in the 2021 Oil and Gas Industry Report by Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative(NEITI).
Executive secretary of NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, while presenting the highlights of the report, stated that, the information and data contained in the NEITI latest reports paid special attention to helping the government at all levels to shore up revenue, support national development and poverty reduction through resource mobilisation.
The report, therefore, provided update on the financial liabilities of the NNPCL and some companies to the federation.
He lamented that, despite the concerted efforts made last year to recover some of the revenues through the ad hoc committee that was set up by the National Assembly, the 2021 figures showed an increase.
A compilation of the outstanding financial liabilities due to the federation by the report indicated that, $13.591million revenues was payable to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as of July 31, 2023, while the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) had outstanding tax collectible revenues of $8.251billion as at December 31, 2022, even as over 80 per cent of these outstanding financial liabilities are owed by NNPCL.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, represented by the permanent secretary, Political and Economic Affairs, Mrs. Esuabana Nko, while unveiling the report reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to support and deepen the implementation of the EITI in Nigeria.
According to the SGF, “President Bola Tinubu’s administration is fully committed to the fight against corruption in the extractive industry in particular and in other sectors of the economy. As an administration, we are convinced that the revival of our economy and the 8-point agenda that we recently unfolded cannot yield the desired result if we do not support and strengthen anti-corruption and reform oriented Agencies like NEITI.”
She added that “the NEITI 2021 Industry Reports being unveiled is quite timely, coming when the present administration is fully committed to shoring up revenues through priority attention to attracting investments to the key sectors of our economy, the oil and gas sector being one of them.”
Chairman, Senate Committee on Oil and Gas Host Communities, Sen. Benson Agadaga, reaffirmed government’s commitment to implement the recommendations of the NEITI oil and gas report.
“Be assured that the federal government will carefully study this important report and adopt it as a valuable working document as part of our overall reform programme for the oil and gas sector ,” Sen. Agadaga stated.
The chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Upstream Sen. Eteng Williams, commended the vital role NEITI is playing and urged the Initiative to continue to ensure revenue mobilisation for the country now that subsidy is gone.
The chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Resources, (Downstream) Hon. Ikeagwuonu Ugochinyere (Ikenga Imo) pledged the support of his Committee to lay the report on the floor of the House and debate it extensively to ensure the implementation of the recommendations made therein, as enshrined in Sections 3 and 4 of the NEITI Act.
The minister of budget and national economic planning, Sen. Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, represented by the permanent secretary, Nebeolisa Anako, stated that the data generated by NEITI will help the ministry in its planning mandate for the country.
“The budget outlay for the country for the current national development plan for five years is N348trillion. Majority of this inflow is going to be from the private sector and the oil and gas sector is key to the realisation of this goal,” he stressed.
The NEITI 2021 Oil and Gas report published yesterday in Abuja with the theme: ‘NEITI Oil & Gas Industry Report 2021: Relevance Built On Revenue Growth And Impact,’ also made several vital disclosures in line with the NEITI Act 2007 and the EITI 2019 Standard.
The report showed that Nigeria earned a total revenue of $23.046billion from the sector in 2021. The sum is about 13 per cent higher than the corresponding total of $20.43billion realised in 2020.
Breakdown of the earnings showed that about $8.67billion, or 37.6 per cent of the revenue was realised from the sale of crude oil and gas; $13.37billion, or 58.02 per cent, from taxes and other specific revenue flows, and $1.01billion, or 4.38 per cent, went into payments to sub-national entities.
Between Depleting Workforce And Declining Productivity