NNPC MOVES TO RECOVER N9.6BILLION OWED NIGERIA

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has begun the process to recover over $7 billion in over-deducted tax benefits from JV Partners on major capital projects.

The Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC, Ibe Kachikwu, told President Muhammadu Buhari, while submitting a report detailing the corporation’s operations so far, that it had commenced performance mea­surement and benchmarking as well as value for money review of NNPC and the JV Companies covering 2008 – 2013.

He told President Buhari that the process may lead to further cost re­covery, adding that a reputable inter­national accounting firm has been en­gaged by the corporation to ascertain the exact amount due government on the strategic alliance contracts entered by NPDC, where up to $2.46 billion of government money is to be recovered.
The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said in a statement, that the report sub­mitted also revealed that consequent upon an extensive investigation of the various toxic crude oil for refined products swap contracts, $420 million has so far been reconciled in favour of NNPC and was due for recovery from the legacy OPA/SWAP contracts.

He quoted the report as stating that, “out of the reconciled amount, the sum of $277 million has been recovered in lieu of products and the recovery ef­fort is still ongoing.”

The NNPC in the report, pledged its commitment to continue to review all existing contracts and address the ones that are not favourable to the Corporation.

It was also revealed that significant cost reductions are expected to ensure the Corporation remains profitable in the prevailing low crude oil price re­gime.

The report listed efforts being made to revive the nation’s refineries to full production, noting that the manage­ment of the NNPC was working to en­sure that this happens before the end of this year.

According to Shehu, the report read in part: “If this is completed, it is ex­pected to achieve an annual savings of about $1billion worth of foreign ex­change from fuel import substitution and additional total saving of over $500 million annually will be made from the petrochemical products of Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company.”

The report also disclosed that ef­forts at repositioning the NNPC have started yielding result on the nation’s economy, while gas supply to the power plants that had hitherto, expe­rienced hiccups, has improved signifi­cantly from about 630 to 861 million standard cubic feet per day, which has resulted in a more steady power sup­ply being witnessed in the country.

Also, it revealed that gas supply for power and peak generation have in recent times reached a historical high of 876 million standard cubic feet per day and 4,782 Mega Watts respec­tively.

Daily Sun