BY BANYO TEMITAYO
STATUTORY recoverable revenues of about N69.51billion and $5.31billion are still outstanding with oil and gas companies, aside from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
The recoverable revenues consist of payments on oil royalty, gas royalty, gas flare penalties, and Petroleum profit tax, among others.
Executive Secretary, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, disclosed this during his maiden press conference in Abuja, on Tuesday.
He said findings of the 2018 Audit Report of the petroleum sector revealed this.
He, however, did not give the names of the firms from which the revenues were being expected.
According to him, outstanding revenues from the NNPC are being addressed by a joint committee.
In the NEITI 2018 Audit Report, companies with financial liabilities to the Federal Government include Addax Petroleum, Chevron, Conoil, Mobil, Aiteo, Seplat, Nigerian Agip and Shell Petroleum Development Company, among others.
About 65 oil and gas companies have financial liabilities, according to the report.
Orji said NEITI, under his watch, would put strategies in motion to ensure that the revenues were recovered.
He said, “These recoverable revenues consist of payments on oil royalty, gas royalty, gas flare penalties, petroleum profit tax, company income tax, education tax, withholding tax, value-added tax and NDDC levy.
“We are no longer comfortable just releasing reports. Our emphasis will be on these and other recoverable revenues due to government while ensuring that companies are treated fairly and given the opportunity to grow.”
The ES added, “NEITI will unveil a framework that will involve stakeholders in this process. Joint committees between NEITI and respective covered entities will be established to look at the issues as it affects individual agencies.
“The committees will be similar to the one established between NEITI and NNPC and is without prejudice to the revitalisation of the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce Team on remediation as a multi-sectoral approach.”
According to him, NEITI will have a deeper engagement with companies to understand their peculiar business models and operations.
