NEITI Disclosed How Much Oil Companies, Govt Agencies Owe FG

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has revealed that some oil companies and relevant government agencies owe the Federal Government a total unremitted revenue of over $9.85 billion in 2021.

The transparency organisation made this revelation on Monday in its 2021 Oil and Gas Industry Report released in Abuja, TrackNews Media understands.

Giving a highlight of the report, the Executive Secretary, of NEITI, Ogbonnaya Orji, disclosed that the 2021 figures rose so much despite concerted efforts made last year to recover some of the revenues through the Ad Hoc Committee that the National Assembly set up.

The report indicated that Nigeria earned a total revenue of $23.046 billion from the oil sector in 2021, which translates to about 13 per cent higher than the corresponding total of $20.43 billion realised in 2020.

Giving a breakdown from the report, the NEITI boss said earnings showed that about $8.67billion, or 37.6 per cent of the revenue was realised from the sale of crude oil and gas; $13.37 billion, or 58.02 per cent, from taxes and other specific revenue flows; and $1.01 billion or 4.38 per cent, went into payments to sub-national entities.

However, the report showed that the compilation of the outstanding financial liabilities due to the federation and payable to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as of July 31, 2023, was a total of $13.591 million in revenue.

The report also indicated that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission had outstanding tax collectable revenues of $8.251 billion as of December 31, 2022, adding that “over 80 per cent of these outstanding financial liabilities are owed by NNPCL.”

Orji noted that in totality, the report was focused on the provision of updates on the financial liabilities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and some companies to the federation.

He submitted that the report would support national development and poverty reduction through resource mobilisation.