-By Oriade Ayomide
The remittance conflict between the NNPC and CBN continues as the apex bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi, yesterday insisted that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is yet to remit $20bn out of the $67bn it realised from crude oil sale on behalf of the Federal Government the Federation Account.
Sanusi, who appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance currently investigating the alleged non-remittance said NNPC between January 2012 and July 2013 shipped $67 billion worth of crude oil but remitted only $47 billion into the Federation Account, arguing that the corporation was yet to account for the balance of $20 billion.
According to him, certain level of reconciliation had been achieved from the meetings the bank had with the NNPC and other relevant agencies since the allegation of the unremitted funds became a public issue some weeks ago.
“The NNPC did a presentation. We had all agreed that $14bn out of the $67bn they shipped came in to the dollar account of the federation. We have looked at the Federal Inland Revenue Service numbers and we have confirmed that $16bn paid by the International Oil Companies to the FIRS account was not paid by the NNPC but paid by the IOCs,” he said
Sanusi added that: “We have provided evidence in the naira crude account that out of the $28bn domestic crude shipped by the NNPC, it had repatriated $16bn. Out of the $67bn that has accrued to the NNPC account, we have accounted for $47bn. That is, out of the $67bn that the NNPC shipped, $47bn had been repatriated to the CBN. What we are talking about is the balance of $20bn and what explanations had been given.”
