The Nigerian Government has revealed it has recovered the sum of N2.6 trillion revenue from oil firms through the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) intervention.
This was disclosed by Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, Executive Secretary of NEITI, on Tuesday in Abuja at its Civil Society Organisations (CSO) and media engagement on Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) validation, according to NAN.
He noted that the revenues include all taxes and VAT being collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and all royalties being collected by the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
What they are saying
NEITI added that a total of $2.6 billion remained outstanding in the hands of companies as at March 2022.
He said Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) validation is conducted every three years and is a quality assurance mechanism to ascertain the level of compliance and progress in implementing its standards among member countries, including Nigeria.
“By the time we release 2021 report, any company owing Nigeria we have no choice than to invite EFCC to take over and handle it as an economic crime,” he said.
He noted that NEITI released 2019 reports which included a list of 77 oil and gas companies that owed the government up to 6.8 billion dollars, citing that the recovery was as a result of NEITI’s appearance at the National Assembly to defend its position based on data it provided.
The NEITI boss added that as soon as it released the 2020 report to prove that, the companies that wanted their names protected were rushing to the relevant agencies to pay up, adding that the list reduced from 77 companies to 51 companies and the amount came down to $3.6 billion.
- “Which shows that from the point we released that information a lot of money came in. None of them disputed our report rather they were giving excuses why they did not pay.
- “The money includes all taxes and VAT being collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and all royalties being collected by the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
- “NEITI collects nothing, all we are asking is for us to be recognised and offered thank you,” he said.
Source: Nairametrics
