Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on
Finance, Hon Abdulmumuin Jibrin, last weekend
declared N320billion missing from the remittance by
the Nigeria Nationl Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). He
said that the sum of N1.516 trillion was paid in by
NNPC into the Federal Government treasury.
Jibrin noted that what Nigerians want is total
remittance of revenue generated from oil sales and
not crude oil sales figures declared recently by the
Ministry of Petroleum Resources. He said: “It should
be noted that this is after taking into consideration,
payments for Joint venture cash calls (i.e. cost of
production) and petrol subsidy payments. However,
only N1.516 trillion has been remitted to the Federal
Government coffers by the NNPC showing a shortfall
of N320.654 billion for the period”, the lawmaker
noted.
“Again, it should be noted that this is actual revenue
generated at the prevailing market rate of crude oil
and gas. The budget for the Fiscal year 2013 was based
on $79 per barrel, whereas the price had hardly fallen
below $100 per barrel for the whole year. This implies
that even though we are receiving way above the
benchmark on our crude oil and gas sales, we are not
meeting our targets because our crude oil production
has fallen way below budgeted estimates as a result of
massive crude oil theft and unabated corruption in
the oil and gas sector,”Jibrin lamented
The Finance Committee chairman maintained that
Nigerians are not as keen on crude oil sales figures as
the actual remittances from in NNPC to the federation
account, adding that the amount remitted was more
important and NNPC should have been more honest
to present the figures so that Nigerians could
understand what actually accrued to the Federal
Government.
His words: “For January to September 2013, the
federation was expected to earn N1.837 trillion (or
N204.168 billion per month) from the sale of crude
oil and gas marketed by the NNPC with the Petroleum
Minister as its board chairperson”.
The lawmaker insisted that figures available to the
House Committee on Finance showed that revenue
targets were only barely met in the months of April
(N212.029 billion) and May (N210.202 billion). While
in July, targets were not met (N191.549 billion),
N35.103 billion was transferred to the excess crude
account
According to him, “the Ministry of Petroleum/NNPC
has to be held accountable for this shortfall. The
MTEF deliberations and revenue framework for the
fiscal 2014 year will have to look extensively into this
worrying situation. If this trend is allowed to
continue, it will have devastating consequences on
our economy which is still dependent to the tune of
over 80% on the petroleum industry”.
“At last, it is gratifying to note that after a barrage of
well-deserved criticisms from well-meaning observers
of the oil and gas industry, the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, is finally making effort
to come clean with the recent release of figures of
crude oil sales allegedly totalling $20.9bn for the first
seven months of 2013, Jibrin said.


Source: http://sunnewsonline.com/new/cover/reps-declare-n320bn-missing-from-crude-oil-remittance/