The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited is insisting on collecting a refund of about N1.3 trillion from the Federation Account as debt by the Federal Government, as the inter-agency committee constituted by President Bola Tinubu is set to commence sitting on Friday to resolve the lingering debt row.
While the Federal Government has accused the NNPC of indebtedness to the tune of about N2.8 trillion, the NNPC claims the Federal Government should first pay back almost N4.1 trillion being its unsettled outstanding claims for subsidy payments on petroleum products imports, supplies and distribution on its behalf.
“The Federation owes NNPC almost N4.1 trillion and NNPC owes about N2.8 trillion to the Federal Government. So, they should actually give us a cheque for the debt of N1.3 trillion they owe NNPC Limited,” a senior official of the company is quoted to have said Thursday.
The official who asked that his identity should not be disclosed as he was not permitted to speak officially on the issue said the committee set up to resolve the lingering debt row between the NNP and the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) is set to commence work.
“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 for some months,” the official said.
He said since his assumption of office on May 29, the new President appears to have been fed with a lot of misinformation about the NNPC and its operations by vested interests that were not entirely factual, prompting the management to write to the President to demand that the matter be resolved once and for all.
“Mr President has been told so many things by some vested interests that have been found to be incorrect since his assumption of office. One of such wrong information is that NNPC Limited refused to remit revenues from its operations to the Federation Accounts,” the official said.
Because the NNPC wants the general public to know the truth, he said the management of the company wrote to the President to demand for a comprehensive investigation of the matter.
He confirmed that the President has already given approval for an inter-agency committee to be set up to investigate and reconcile the books between NNPC and FAAC to finally resolve and rest the matter.
The FAAC, consisting of the representatives of the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), had on several occasions accused the NNPC Limited of short-changing the Federation by reneging on its obligations to remit over N2 trillion to the federation account from crude sales, royalties and taxes.
But, the NNPC Limited, on the other hand, claimed the Federal Government was owing the national oil company, which transformed into a public limited liability company in 2021, over N4 trillion in subsidy payment arrears, power sector debt and other sundry charges.
The committee scheduled to commence sitting on Friday at the Federal Ministry of Finance headquarters in Abuja has the mandate to look at all records to reconcile the figures, in terms of remittances and payments, with a view to resolving the controversies surrounding the claims and counter-claims over N4.2 trillion debt the the NNPC claims against the Federal Government and the N2.1 trillion the Federal Government said the NNPC Limited failed to remit to the Federation Account.
Members of the committee include representatives from the Federal Ministry of Finance and NNPC Limited, 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, followed a memo dated June 13, 2023 by the Group Chief Executive Officer (GECO) of NNPL, Mele Kyari appealing for his intervention to help resolve the matter.
Kyari, in the letter, was quoted to have stated that the reason behind his decision to write to the President to invite his intervention was to put to rest all the allegations and counter allegations by both FAAC and NNPC Limited on the status of the debts and remittances.
Presidency sources familiar with the matter said that although NNPC Limited got several letters from FAAC requesting payment for the outstanding N2 trillion it claimed that NNPC was owing the Federation Accounts, the Company was insisting on withholding action on the matter until a full reconciliation of records on the N4.1 trillion debt the Federal Government was owing NNPC Limited.
