The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House of Representatives has constituted sub-committees to ascertain the state of indebtedness of Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and others in the oil and gas industry to the federation account, and analysis of NUPRC Remitta records.
The committee chaired by Hon. Bamidele Salam made the decision over the issue raised in the Auditor-General’s 2021 report on the consolidated financial Statement against the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulator Commission (NUPRC).
The report raised three queries against the commission which were “Outstanding Royalties due from NNPC-COMF MCA/PSC totaling $253,952,693.07, Unjustified deductions from joint venture Royalty by NNPC before Remitting to DPR (now NUPRC) totaling $204,853,744,047.39.
“Outstanding Royalties on Oil, Gas, concession Rentals and Gas flared payable by operators to federation Account totaling $2,260,448,992.45 and N48,216,163,192.67, among other”.
The Chief Executive of NUPRC, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, responding to the issue of outstanding royalties, said the outstanding revenue due from NNPC as of 31st Dec 2021 has been paid to the tune of $224.3m, leaving a balance of $29.6m that is still outstanding.
“NUPRC has sent a series of demand notices to the NNPC to clear the outstanding debt and even reported them to the Hon Minister of Finance to intervene but to no avail.”
“The NUPRC has a revenue collection strategy which includes sanctions and invocation of fine and penalty sections of PIA 2021,” he stated.
