By Nduka Chiejina, Abuja
Revenue-generating agencies affiliated to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) are yet to remit N1.6 trillion into the Federation Account as at last month.
Members of the Post-Mortem Sub-Committee (PMSC) of the FAAC made this known to the FAAC assembly at the last meeting in Abuja.
The PMSC headed by former Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Kabir Mashi stated: “The total outstanding due to the Federation Account from the Revenue-Generating Agencies as at April 2023 were $1,365,399,180.04 and N1,632,804,096,701.64”.
He gave the breakdown as: the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) $1,023,128,020.92 (or N1,439,662,970,681); FIRS $2,594,794.11 or N193,141,126,020.64 and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) N339,676,365.01.
The FIRS attributed the delay in remitting some revenue to the Federation Account to the agreement between the NNPCL and International Oil Companies (IOCs) on the remittances.
According to the Special Assistant on Media to FIRS Chairman Mr. Johannes Tobi Wojuola, “by the very nature of the collection process of the FIRS, a situation where there is no remittance of tax cannot arise. All taxes collected by the FIRS are paid by the respective taxpayers straight into the designated CBN Federation Account.
However, “at the centre of these outstanding figures is unpaid monies by offtakers of crude oil sold by the NNPCL.
“NUPRC and FIRS do not have mandates to trade oil. IOCs, after mining pay their royalties, Education Tax and Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) to the Federal Government in crude oil.This crude oil is taken to be sold by the NNPCL (because they are the only government entity that is authorised to sell crude oil).
“Thereafter the proceeds are paid to the NUPRC and FIRS as the case may be (royalties to NUPRC and Education Tax and Petroleum Profit Tax to the FIRS).’’
The amounts quoted by the report as outstanding are the amounts that the NNPCL is yet to pay from these proceeds of Crude Oil sale by it to the FIRS.
Wojuola noted that “some of the payments are not yet due: that is, by the arrangement NNPCL has with the offtakers who purchase the crude oil in question, they agree to pay on a later date, which is after the lifting date.
“The payment dates on some of these lifted crude have not yet mature. These outstanding payments are a part of the FAAC process, and have been the case for a while.
He added that “every month outstanding payments by the NNPCL under the arrangement it has with IOCs are settled. By next month, due payments would be settled as has been the case”.
Corroborating the position of the FIRS, the Kabir Mashi-led PMSC said “these outstanding amounts are still being reconciled at the monthly reconciliation meetings between the Agencies and the Sub-Committee”.
Also contained in the report is the Value Added Tax (VAT) remittance into the federation account.
The PMSC disclosed that the FIRS VAT collection and remittance into the VAT Pool Account for the month of April, 2023 was N217,742,950,401.10. This is lower than the N218,785,754,993.15
However, the cumulative collection for the period of January to April was put at N927,337,521,142.91
With regards to Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EML) the PMSC in its report to the plenary said “the total receipts into EMTL account from January to April, 2023 stood at N56,142,009,346.77 and the sum of N15,121,436,356.39 was collected by FIRS for the month of April, 2023.
In contrast to arrears or delayed remittances to the federation account, the PMSC revealed that “the total sum of N11,640,615,992.59 was recovered in favor of the Federation Account as outstanding arrears from several revenue items of collection and paid to the related designated accounts for the Month of April, 2023.
The Post Mortem Sub-Committee (PMSC) said that it recovered $1,243,521.96 at 434.08/$ or N539,788,012.40 from the NNPCL Crude Oil Sales Revenue Arrears for the month of April, 2023 and $25,520,318.13 at 434.98/$ or N11,100,827,980.19 from the NUPRC PSC-MCA Royalty for February, 2023 Arrears.
This brings the total recovered revenue (inflows) into the federation account to USD $26,763,840.09 or N11,640,615,992.59.
The report said that the NNPC Ltd deducted the sum of N190,572,534,815.11 as PMS value shortfall recovery (subsidy) for the month of April, 2023.
“This brings the cumulative deductions between January to April, 2023 to a total sum of N1,623,148,984,501.70. The details are: January, 2023, N835,654,008,845.62; February, 2023 N1,091,045,872,476.80; March, 2023 N1,432,576,449,686.59; April, 2023 N1,623,148,984,501.70
Mashi and his team said “efforts are on-going to reconcile the amounts established as subsidy payments by NNPC against amounts withheld by NNPC for payments of subsidy in order to bring the issue to a closure”. (Nation)