THE Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to defray $1.48 billion remittances due to the Federation Account by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), being signature bonus, taxes and royalties on the assets transferred to the firm.
NPDC is an upstream subsidiary of NNPC. The Corporation also insisted it is not indicted by the forensic audit report on the alleged missing $20bn unremitted oil revenue carried out by the reputable international firm, PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Ohi Alegbe said yesterday in Abuja that audit report absolved the Corporation of culpability over the allegation of non- remittance of $20bn.
The Corporation noted that the release of the forensic audit report has finally laid to rest the controversy surrounding allegations of “missing oil revenue” or non-remittance to the Federation Account.
The Corporation explained that it was not true that it was indicted in the Forensic audit report as being speculated in some quarters as the $1.48bn that the audit firm recommended the Corporation to remit to the Federation Account was not part of the alleged unremitted revenues from crude lifting.
It explained that the $1.48bn was never in dispute as it is made up of statutory payments such as signature bonus, taxes and royalties, which are statutory payments that come with assets acquisition.
It stated that the delay in payment was due to the reconciliation processes between the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the NNPC.
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