President Bola Tinubu has approved the setting up of an inter-agency committee to resolve the prolonged controversy surrounding the alleged discrepancies in remittances by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) in the last few years.
THISDAY learnt on Thursday, that the committee which has already been established, was expected to begin sitting today, at the Ministry of Finance headquarters in Abuja.
The panel is mandated to reconcile the controversies surrounding the about N4.2 trillion debt the federal government allegedly owes the NNPC Limited and the N2.1 trillion that the NNPC Limited was said to have failed to remit to the Federation Account.
The back and forth between both organisations and the sums which have changed with time, have raised several posers in the public space, with the matter remaining unresolved for a long while. While the NNPC accuses the federation of owing the company, the federation had also said the NNPC owes it huge sums.
“Today, we are waiting for them (federal government) to settle up to N2.8 trillion of NNPC’s cash flow from the subsidy regime and we can’t continue to build this.
“Since the provision of the N6 trillion in 2022, and N3.7 trillion in 2023, we have not have not received any payment whatsoever from the federation account.
“That means the federal government was unable to pay and we have continued to support this subsidy from the cash flow of the NNPC. That is when we net off our fiscal obligations of taxes and royalties,” the NNPC’s Group Chief Executive, Mele Kyari, had said May 30, after visiting President Bola Tinubu.
The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), on June 8 had also accused the NNPC of withholding the sum of N8.4 trillion meant for the Federation Account.
The Chairman of RMAFC, Bello Shehu, was quoted as saying that the NNPC withheld the money in the name of paying for subsidy.
Beset by the accusations and counter-accusations, it was learnt that the NNPC formally wrote the president to look into the matter with a view to laying it to rest once and for all.
“I can comfortably tell you that Mr President has approved the memo from NNPC Limited to set up a committee to reconcile the crisis between NNPC Limited and FAAC over the failure to remit money into the federation account,” a source said.
The presidency source said some persons with vested interests had told the new president things that were not entirely factual, prompting the national oil company to write that the matter should be investigated.
“So many things have been told to Mr. President since assuming office by some vested interests that NNPC Limited has refused to pay into the federation accounts.
“And because we want the general public to know the truth, NNPC Limited’s management wrote the president to investigate the matter and Mr. President has graciously approved that an inter-agency committee be set up to investigate and reconcile the matter,” the source stated.
In the latest recorded spat, the FAAC had accused the NNPC of short-changing it by refusing to pay monies to the federal account from crude sales, royalties and taxes while.
The NNPC Limited on the other hand had said the federal government was owing it over N4 trillion in subsidy payment, power supply debts and other sundry charges.
Besides the ministry of finance and NNPC Limited, it was learnt that other members of the debt reconciliation committee included the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) and FAAC Post-Mortem Sub-Committee.
The establishment of the committee by the president, it was gathered, followed a memo dated June 13, 2023 by Kyari appealing to him to intervene in the matter.
The letter stated that this was with a view to putting to rest all the allegations and counter allegations by both FAAC and NNPC Limited on the status of the debts and remittances.
It was further learnt that although NNPC Limited received several letters from FAAC requesting payment of the about N2 trillion that NNPC is allegedly owing the Federation Account, the company said it could not pay any money to FAAC pending the reconciliation of the N4.1 trillion debt the federal government is owing the company.
“The Federation owes NNPC almost N4.1 trillion and NNPC owes about N2.8 trillion to the federal government, so they should actually give the NNPC a cheque for the debt of N1.3 trillion they owe it,” one other source said.
Emmanuel Addeh
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