By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Official audit reports show that local and international oil and gas firms owe Nigeria $6.48 billion (N2.6 trillion) in taxes and N105 billion is missing from ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) – yet Muhammadu Buhari keeps on borrowing.
By May 29, 2015 when Buhari became President, Nigeria’s debt was N12.12 trillion.
The debt jumped by N20.8 trillion to N32.92 trillion between June 2015 and December 2020, and to N33.11 trillion in Q1 2021, all figures released by the Debt Management Office (DMO).
The debt rose to N35.465 trillion in half year ended June 30 (H1 2021), a rise from $87.24 billion in Q1 2021 and $86.39 billion in Q4 2020, according to the DMO.
So Buhari has borrowed over N23.34 trillion for Nigeria since June 2015. The figure excludes
- $4 billion and €710 million for which he sought legislative approval on September 13 and
- $5 billion and $4 billion raised from the issuance of Eurobond on September 21.
The Office of the federal Auditor General confirmed in its recently released 2018 annual audited report that N105,662,350,077.46 of public funds is missing, misappropriated or unaccounted for across 149 MDAs.
And Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Executive Secretary, Orji Ogbonnaya, disclosed on September 28 that 77 oil companies owe the government $6.48 billion comprising
- Petroleum profit tax
- Company income tax
- Education tax
- Value added tax (VAT)
- Withholding tax
- Royalty
- Concession on rentals
Per PREMIUM TIMES, Ogbonnaya said they failed to remit these taxes; he did not name the companies but explained that the figure is based on the NEITI 2019 audit reports of the oil and gas sector.
He insisted that the owed money could be useful at a time Abuja is borrowing money to fund the 2021 budget.
Debt details
Ogbonnaya said oil and gas firms owe
- Petroleum profit tax – $143.99 million
- Company income tax – $1.089 billion
- Education tax – $201.69 million
“Others include $18.46 million and £972 thousand as Value Added Tax, $23.91 million and £997 thousand as Withholding Tax, $4.357 billion as royalty oil, $292.44 million as royalty gas, while $270.187 million and $41.86 million were unremitted gas flare penalties and concession rentals respectively,” he said.
“A comparative analysis of what this huge sum can contribute to economic development shows that it could have covered the entire capital budget of the federal government in 2020 or even used to service the federal government’s debt of $2.68 billion in 2020.
“In 2021, the N2.659 trillion could fund about 46 per cent of Nigeria’s 2021 budget deficit of N5.6 trillion and is even higher than the entire projected oil revenue for 2021.
“This is why it is important that the process of recovering this humongous sum be set on course to support the government in this period of dwindling revenue.”
Ogbonnaya said NEITI is determined to help Abuja recover this money and urged the companies to remit their outstanding taxes to the relevant agencies before the conclusion of the 2020 NEITI audit cycle.
“The NEITI will no longer watch while these debts continue to remain in its reports unaddressed.
“We will provide all necessary information and data to sister agencies including anti-corruption agencies whose responsibilities are to recover these debts into government coffers.
“NEITI made a commitment that it will ensure that its reports are linked to visible impacts that are measurable. This is one key area where we want to ensure compliance to extant rules on remittances due to the government.”
