The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, has disclosed that 77 international and Nigerian oil and gas companies currently owe the country’s government over N2.6 trillion.
Orji said the debts were a result of the firms’ failure to remit petroleum profit tax, company income tax, education tax, value-added tax, withholding tax, royalty, and concession on rentals.
Briefing the media on the findings in the NEITI 2019 audit reports, Orji said the money could be useful at a time the government is borrowing money to fund the 2021 budget.
Development Diaries understands that Africa’s most populous nation has borrowed from a variety of sources to fund a budget shortfall of over N5 trillion.
Nigeria, which is Africa’s largest producer of oil, has faced significant challenges, including unaccountable use of revenues and corruption, in the sector.
Orji said oil and gas companies owe $143.99 million as petroleum profit taxes, $1.089 billion as company income taxes, and $201.69 million as education tax.
‘Others include $18.46 million and £972,000 as Value Added Tax, $23.91million and £997,000 as Withholding Tax, $4.357 billion as royalty oil, $292.44 million as royalty gas, while $270.187 million and $41.86 million were unremitted gas flare penalties and concession rentals respectively’, he said.
‘A comparative analysis of what this huge sum can contribute to economic development shows that it could have covered the entire capital budget of the federal government in 2020 or even used to service the federal government’s debt of $2.68billion in 2020.
‘In 2021, the 2.659 trillion could fund about 46 percent of Nigeria’s 2021 budget deficit of N5.6 trillion and is even higher than the entire projected oil revenue for 2021.
‘This is why it is important that the process of recovering this humongous sum be set on course to support the government in this period of dwindling revenue’.
He appealed to the companies to ensure that they remit the various outstanding sums against them before the conclusion of the 2020 NEITI audit cycle to the relevant government agencies responsible for collection and remittances of such revenue.
Orji continued, ‘The NEITI will no longer watch while these debts continue to remain in its reports unaddressed. We will provide all necessary information and data to sister agencies including anti-corruption agencies whose responsibilities are to recover these debts into government coffers.
‘NEITI made a commitment that it will ensure that its reports are linked to visible impacts that are measurable. This is one key area where we want to ensure compliance to extant rules on remittances due to the government’.
Orji also announced that NEITI was working to publish its 2020 audit reports by November 2021.
The concept of the EITI is built on the multi-stakeholder approach that involves the government, companies and civil society.
Photo source: NEITI
