NEITI tackles oil firms over N1.07 trillion tax revenue owed FG

Recall by the time NEITI released its 2019 report, it had also made public, a list of 77 oil and gas companies that owed the government up to $6.8 billion.

The National Assembly had set up an ad-hoc committee to probe the figures and also, have first hand report how the organization arrived at the numbers.

in 2020, NEITI published another report which revealed that the defaulting oil companies had reduced to 51 companies, with a corresponding debt of $3.6 billion.

While speaking at the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) sensitization programme recently, the Executive Secretary, NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, further added that the organization has so far recovered a total of $3.8 billion (N1.5 trillion) while an outstanding sum of $2.67 billion (N1.07 trillion) was still pending as of March 2022.

The income received by NEITI includes the taxes and VAT being collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the royalties that have been paid to the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

Orji further mentioned that there was a need for Nigeria for be fully prepared for the coming Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) revalidation which is expected to come up in 2023 thus the recovery process was a means of achieving the target set for the country for full validation by the world body.