NEITI reveals extractive firms underpaid $10bn in taxes

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) informed members of the House of Representatives on Monday that some corporations operating in the extractive industries underpaid the Federal Government by over $10 billion in taxes and royalties.

This information was provided by NEITI in a presentation to lawmakers that covered some of the effects of the organisation in Nigeria’s solid minerals, oil, and gas industries. Obiageli Onuorah, Deputy Director/Head Communications and Stakeholders Management, NEITI, made the presentation at the agency’s Abuja headquarters.

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The House of Representatives pledged to work for the privatisation of Nigeria’s refineries in order to increase their effectiveness and benefit Nigerians at the time.

Although the slide that captured the amount that was underpaid by extractive firms in Nigeria did not state the duration, it pointed out that the $10bn was for under payment and under assessment of taxes and royalty.

Stating the impacts of NEITI during the presentation to the lawmakers, Onuorah said the agency ensured that there was “a specific law on EITI (NEITI Act 2007); ongoing reforms in the extractive sector – NNPCL, mining sector; disclosure of under payment and under assessment of taxes and royalty to the tune of over $10bn; amendment of PSC (Production Sharing Contract) Inland Basin Act;” among others.

NEITI also told the lawmakers, who were at the agency on a courtesy visit, that its policy advisory had identified some priority areas to be tackled by the new administration of President Bola Tinubu.

It said some of them include the “introduction of welfare programmes for the poor and the vulnerable. With the subsidy now gone, NEITI recommends that the government immediately launch a comprehensive welfare programme from the savings from subsidy.”

It added that there should be deliberate policy incentives to encourage private investment in refineries.

“A deliberate policy initiative should be implemented with full presidential backing to encourage Nigerians and foreign investors already awarded licenses to establish private refineries in Nigeria,” the agency stated.

In his response, the leader of the delegation of lawmakers and Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Ikenga Ugochinyere, said the National Assembly would work towards the amendment of the NEITI Act.

This, he said, would empower “NEITI to take disciplinary actions against offenders and also empower NEITI to investigate offences and recommend the prosecution of offenders by relevant investigative and prosecutorial agencies of the Federal Government.”