The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) said (today) Tuesday that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to remit 4.9 trillion naira ($25 billion) to the national treasury between January 2011 and December 2015.
“Records at the Commission’s disposal indicate that between January 2011 and December 2015, the total indebtedness of NNPC to the Federation Account was 4.9 trillion naira,” said RMAFC, an independent body, in a statement. This is coming few days after the auditor-general said 3.2 trillion naira was not remitted in 2014, which NNPC later denied.
The commission said through its spokesman, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed, in Abuja, that NNPC was owing only N1.9 trillion from the 2014 operations, going by its records. The statement added that while the said report claimed that NNPC owed N3.2 trillion to the Federation Account in 2014 from domestic crude sale, the commission’s records revealed that the corporation owed the Federation Account N1.99 trillion only, in 2014.
“Therefore, the figure quoted by the Auditor-General of the Federation must have included revenues from other sources,” it said.
Concerning alleged payment of US$235 million realized from the sale of natural gas into an undisclosed Escrow Accounts by NNPC, the commission explained that the corporation, on behalf of NLNG, had entered into agreements with three international oil companies, including Nigeria Agip Oil Company, NAOC, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC, Total E&P Nigeria Limited, TEPNG, under a Modified Carry Agreement, MCA, proceeds from which funds are deposited in Escrow Accounts for funding the various gas projects under the LNNG. RMAFC said it had been working with NNPC to reconcile the figures, following a tripartite meeting held with NNPC and the Ministry of Finance.
