Posted by By Chijama Ogbu on
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has allegedly short-changed the Federation Account to the tune of N311billion.....
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has allegedly short-changed the Federation Account to the tune of N311billion.
The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission made the disclosure in its submission to the Joint Senate Committees on Appropriation and Finance investigating withdrawals of funds from the account.
The RMAFC said that the sum was not remitted between November 2004 and April 2006.
A copy of the submission obtained by our correspondent reads, 'Whereas no arbitrary withdrawal has so far been made from the Excess Domestic Crude Account the NNPC had continued to withhold part of the proceeds from the sales of domestic crude."
Monies that accrue to the country are usually pooled into the Federation Account from where they are distributed to the three tiers of government according to the Revenue Allocation Formula.
Excess revenue is the income above the Federal Government's budgeted benchmark for crude oil sales, Petroleum Profit Tax and royalties.
In the submission by its Chairman, Alhaji Hamman Tukur, the RMAFC said that the outstanding crude oil/ gas sales for between August 2005 and March 2006 stood at $99.5million.
Tukur explained that the NNPC withheld amounts varying from N285million in November 2004 to N30billion each in September, October and November 2005.
He said that the Excess Crude Account breaches Section 162 (3) of the 1999 Constitution.
The section reads, 'Any amount standing to the credit of the Federation Account shall be distributed among the federal and state governments and the local government councils in each state in such a manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly."
Tukur also faulted the withdrawal of $1.05billion from the account for the funding of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company plant. He said that since the project fell within the purview of the Federal Government, it ought to be funded from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Mrs. Nenadi Usman had a few days before she was promoted from minister of State for Finance to the Minister of Finance said that the NNPC withheld N92billion from the Federation Account between January and June 2006.
Usman explained that the corporation attributed the withdrawals to the subsidy on petroleum products.
She had said, 'We have collectively decided here (Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting) that starting from July 2006, we are going to have the NNPC to always give us an invoice and charge us for how much they feel the subsidy is and then we pay them.
'So, there shouldn't be any withholding of funds anymore by NNPC.
'I am sure that you are aware that all the three tiers of government, collectively, have set up the Petroleum Support Fund, which will be managed by the Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency. So, we hope that from next month, it will come into operation and the NNPC will stop further deduction."
When our correspondent called the General Manager, Group Public Affairs Department, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, on the phone on Monday for his reaction, he was said to be in a meeting.
We had earlier called him on Thursday night, and he said that he was out of his office already and could not answer to our enquiries.
The Group Managing Director, NNPC, had in the past explained that the funds so withheld were in deed parts of their costs, which he always insisted that the corporation was constitutionally empowered to recover before its remittances to the Federation Account.