Audit report from The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) shows that the Federal Government recovered N600 billion from oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria.
According to Punch, the sum was recovered from unpaid taxes, penalties, royalties and commissions on rentals. As at 2019, the total debt of the 77 oil firms was N2.6 trillion.
While speaking to journalists in Abuja on Friday, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Orji Ogbonnaya-Orji revealed that the 2021 oil industry audit report will be published before the end of 2022.
Mr Orji noted that it is NEITI’s responsibility to furnish the government with Nigeria’s extractive industry data. He said that the report will reveal the number of oil firms that have paid to the FG, how much was paid and how much the government received.
“The 2021 (oil and gas sector) report will be concluded and published before the end of the year. The scope of the report is to establish what companies paid to the government within the given year of 2021 and how much of that money did government receive.
“We equally want to establish if those companies paid what they should pay and if the government actually received what it should receive, as well as the variances if any.
“We want to establish the quantity of crude that is produced, how much of that can be accounted for, and how much was stolen. We should establish the amount that was exported, reserved for local consumption and how this reserve was managed,” Mr Orji said.
Documents available to the public indicate that while the total recovery pre-2021 and before the pronouncement of NEITI was N900bn, the additional amount recovered after NEITI’s pronouncement/National Assembly review was N600bn.
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