Members of the Home of Representatives Committees on Finance and Nationwide Planning have expressed displeasure over the expenditure of the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Fee (NUPRC).
The lawmakers had been displeased particularly with the excessive private expenditure together with salaries, and a drop within the fee’s non-tax remittance.
At an interactive session targeted on the 2025-2027 Medium Time period Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Technique Paper (FSP), members of the committees quizzed key businesses in Abuja, on Friday.
The Chief Government Officer (CEO) of the NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, offered the fee’s monetary information to the expressed displeasure of the lawmakers.
Rep. James Faleke, the chairman of the Home Committee on Finance, who presided over the session argued that the NUPRC spending over N80 billion on workers salaries in a yr is implausible.
“I’m questioning what kind of organisation you could have. You’re paying N88 billion as salaries. What number of workers do you could have?” he queried the CEO.
A breakdown of NUPRC Monetary information as offered to the Committees
Fasina knowledgeable the committee that the fee’s non-tax remittance dropped from N3.67 billion in 2022 to N1.77 billion in 2023.
He defined that the NUPRC generated revenues from oil royalty, fuel royalty, concession rental, fuel flat penalty, together with fines and levies, signature bonuses, and renewal of licenses.
He defined that the fee statutorily acquired 4 % Value Of Income Assortment (CORC) for the whole income it collected on behalf of the Federal Authorities.
This, he added, was credited on to the Federation Account, and FAAC credit the 4% to the Fee.
He stated, “The CORC amounted to N114.84 billion in 2023 as towards N114.38 billion in 2022. The quantity launched in 2023 contains N2.82 billion for capital expenditure, although N173.77 billion was due as 4% on the precise collections of N14.34 trillion in 2023.
“The fee additionally generates revenues internally, reminiscent of registration charges, license charges, fines, recoveries, amongst others.”
He added that it generated N1.44 billion in 2023 in comparison with N30.08 billion in 2022, and this accounts for 1.26% of the whole income realised in 2023 and a pair of.62% in 2022, respectively.
Fasina knowledgeable the committee that the fee recorded the next expenditure in 2023 than it did in 2022. It spent N82.35 billion on personnel prices which represents 70.19 % of the whole bills of N117.33 billion. That is adopted by overhead prices of N31.63 billion, which accounts for 26.96 billion.
End result of the interrogation
The committees requested the NUPRC to return to them with particulars of all oil manufacturing, crude gross sales, and different actions within the upstream petroleum business within the nation.
In his ultimate ruling on the matter, Faleke stated, “You’ll have to come again with all of the information of all of the wells that produce the oil, litre by litre, per day. How a lot oil can we get from right here each day?”
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