The Federal Government’s outstanding N1.3tn debt to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has nothing to do with the payment of dividends to the government, the NNPCL stated on Thursday.
In June of this year, the national oil firm disclosed that it expected a reimbursement of around N1.3tn from the Federation Account as a debt owed by the Federal Government. It revealed this as President Bola Tinubu’s inter-agency committee was ready to begin meeting to address the outstanding debt dispute.
The Federal Government accused the NNPCL of being indebted to the tune of around N2.8tn, but the oil firm maintained that the Federal Government should first pay back almost N4.1tn in unresolved outstanding claims for petroleum subsidy products imports, supplies and distribution on behalf of the government.
“The Federation owes NNPC almost N4.1tn and NNPC owes about N2.8tn to the Federal Government. So, they should actually give us a cheque for the debt of N1.3tn they owe NNPC Limited,” a senior official of the company had reportedly stated recently in Abuja, as the inter-agency committee constituted by the President moved to resolve the matter.
But despite this debt by the Federal Government to the NNPCL, the company announced recently that it paid a dividend and Production Sharing Contract profit of about N123bn to the Federal Government in June.
It stated, “NNPC has remitted N123bn (N81bn as monthly interim dividend and N42bn as 40 per cent PSC profit oil) in addition to compliance on payment of royalties and taxes.
“This clearly shows that the company under the leadership of Mallam Mele Kyari is moving in a positive trajectory as enshrined in the PIA (Petroleum Industry Act),” the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Umar Ajiya, stated in a chat with journalists.
When approached by our correspondent and asked if the oil company had begun to deduct part or all of the N1.3tn due it by the Federal Government, the corporation answered in the negative, owing to the fact that it had recently given the government a N123bn dividend.
Garba-Deen Muhammad, NNPCL’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, went on to explain that the dividend payment had nothing to do with the Federal Government’s N1.3tn debt to the national oil firm.
“Dividend payment is on projected profit and has nothing to do with the outstanding N1.3tn owed to the NNPC Ltd,”
