Friday 14 December 2012

Oil producing firms owe FG N336bn


The Federal Government has been able to recover only N68.94bn out of the $2.6bn (N404.98bn) underpayments by operators in the oil and gas sector, leaving a balance of N336.03bn yet to be recovered. The underpayments were revealed in three audit reports for 1999-2004, 2005, and 2006-2008 conducted by the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative.
The Executive Secretary, NEITI, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said at the release of the Solid Minerals Sector Audit Report 2007-2010 in Abuja that measures put in place by the organization in collaboration with other government agencies had led to some recovery amounting to N68.94bn. The Chairman, NEITI, Mr. Ledum Mitee, also said the nation lost N4.04bn in the solid mineral sector between 2007 and 2010 due the use of outdated rates in the calculation of royalty payments.
Ahmed said the three audit reports showed that the Federation Account was boosted by $269bn (N41.89tn) between 1999 and 2008 through revenues from the oil and gas sector.
On the solid minerals sector, Mitee said the audit commissioned by NEITI earlier in the year revealed a discrepancy between what companies claimed they paid to the government and what government agencies claimed they received.

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