FAAC: NNPC must remit N20b- States
The ongoing controversy between the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) may not be resolved soon as the states insist that the sum of N20billion must be remitted to the federation account by the corporation.
Chairman of the Finance Commissioners Forum, Mr. Mamood Yunusa, told newsmen weekend in Abuja that the NNPC must fully remit the amount due to Federation account.
“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 NNPC only remitted N127 billion as May 2018 earnings as against N147 billion claimed by the corporation, leaving a deficit of N20 billion.
He noted that at last week’s stalemated 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 records and data claimed ignorance of the amount.”
He said FAAC got more revenue from NNPC when crude oil was N50/barrel but now receives far below 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.
“States, as stakeholders in the federation account, are not expected to take NNPC’s account hook, line and sinker but are allowed by law to ask questions for clarity.”
Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said last Thursday that the controversy over the revenue sharing might delay payment of workers’ salaries for June.
FAAC members, according to her, felt that some of the costs presented by the NNPC could not be justified, hence their decision to withhold approval for the accounts.
Adeosun said both Mr President and his deputy had been briefed on the situation and were in support of the finance commissioners not to approve those accounts until further explanations on some of the costs being expected are given.
However NNPC has hinted that the issue will be resolved soon by the National Economic Council (NEC).