President Muhammadu Buhari has given the go-ahead to a coalition of anti-graft agencies, including the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to recover about N2.65 trillion unremitted funds by 77 oil companies operating in the country.
Barely two weeks ago, NEITI disclosed that 77 oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria were indebted to the federation to the tune of N2.659 trillion, arising from failure to remit petroleum profit tax, company income tax, education tax, value added tax, withholding tax, royalty and concession on rentals.
Speaking in Abuja on the status of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) implementation in Nigeria, Executive Secretary of the organisation, Dr. Ogbonnaya Orji, stated that when converted to forex, government was being owed $6.48 billion at today’s official exchange rate of N410.35.
He noted that a breakdown of the figures showed that a total of $143.99 million was owed as petroleum profit taxes, $1.089 billion as company income taxes and $201.69 million as education tax.
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