From Dennis Mernyi, Abuja
THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has described as inaccurate and erroneous, the declaration that it failed to remit the sum of N3.235 trillion to the Federation Account.
The Corporation in a statement signed Wednesday by its Group Executive Director/Chief Financial Officer (Finance & Accounts), Isiaka Abdulrazaq, said that the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF)’s declaration was not only inaccurate but erroneous.
He said the declaration by the AuGF may have been borne out of misunderstanding of how revenues from crude oil and gas sales are remitted into the Federation Account.
According to him, the figure owed the Federation Account as at January 2015 Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting report was N326,142,137,205.79 (which is still being reconciled) and not the N3.23 trillion alleged by the AuGF.
The NNPC, which was responding to the declaration made by the AuGF to the National Assembly on March 14, 2016 where he alleged that it failed to remit the sum of N3.235 trillion to the Federation Account for the period ended December 31, 2014, said it was inaccurate.
Abdulrazaq stated that as part of its responsibilities, NNPC is allocated 445,000 barrels per day for processing into petroleum products for distribution to consumers across the nation. Any unprocessed crude is sold and the proceeds used to pay for importation of petroleum products. The proceeds from the sale of these products are remitted to the Federation Account after deducting the cost associated with the supply and distribution.
The NNPC chief further explained that the costs include subsidy on petroleum products, which, as a major supplier of petroleum products to the nation, it is entitled to claims from petroleum products sold at government regulated price (whether imported or locally refined).
“The process and determination of appropriate subsidy claim is managed by PPPRA which ultimately issues certificates after deductions from domestic crude cost.
“The total amount of subsidy that have been approved and certified by PPPRA for the period of January 2012 to December 2014 was N2.34 trillion. An additional N7.96 billion subsidy claim is still under reconciliation.
On crude oil and petroleum product losses, the Corporation noted that losses from crude oil and petroleum products as a result of vandalism on its network of pipelines for the period of January 2012 to December 2014 was N202.68 billion while petroleum product strategic holding cost and pipeline repairs and maintenance cost for between January 2012 and December 2014