The Presidency yesterday got a request – it should probe the whereabouts
of about US$4billion taxes and dividends paid by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural
Gas (NLNG) Ltd.
The payments include Income tax, Education tax and
dividends.
NLNG Managing Director Babs Omotowa told The Nation last week that the
company had paid over US$30 billion to its shareholders in the past 10 years.
Into which account were the funds paid? The All
Progressives Congress (APC) urged President Muhammadu Buhari to launch a probe.
The Nation report continues:
Nigeria, with a 49 per cent stake, is the single
largest shareholder in the money-spinning company, which contributed US$1.6
billion to the Federal Government’s multi-billion package for the states.
Relying on facts and figures, the APC claimed that of
the US$4,728,136,946 paid as dividends by the NLNG between 2009 and 2014, only US$127,851,348.19
made it to the Federal Government’s Independent Account with JP Morgan.
It said the Buhari administration should tell
Nigerians the whereabouts of the balance of over US$4 billion.
Explaining the NLGN role in the “bailout” cash,
Omotowa said the US$1.6 billion was the Income Tax and Education Tax the
company paid to the Federal Government through the Federal Inland Revenue
Service (FIRS) for the 2014 financial year.
But the APC, through its National Publicity Secretary,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, called on the Federal Government to urgently unravel what
happened to the past dividends paid to it.
Mohammed said the probe became necessary following
published reports that such remittances were never lodged into the Federation
Account as required.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), through its
spokeman, Olisah Metuh, claimed that the “bailout” cash, which will help states
to pay salaries from the savings left behind by the administration of former
President Goodluck Jonathan.
Metuh, who counselled President Buhari to take a cue
from his predecessor by saving for the rainy day, also claimed that NLNG’s
dividend stood at US$5.6 billion, when Dr. Jonathan left office on May 29.
Mohammed accused the PDP of grandstanding and standing
logic on its head.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday, Mohammed
described as a glaring example of grandstanding opposition the attempt by the
PDP to distort the facts about the source of the $2.1 billion that was approved
for sharing by the three tiers of government by the President.
The statement reads: “Whereas the Presidency corrected
the initial erroneous report that the shared money was sourced from the Excess
Crude Account (ECA), the skittish opposition continued to insist it was from
the ECA and that it was part of the ‘savings’ by the Jonathan Administration.
“Well, we can tell Nigerians that the US$2.1 billion
was sourced from the US$1.6 billion Company Income Tax/Education Tax paid to
the Federal Government on June 17, 2015, over two weeks after the Jonathan Administration
left office, as well as the $500 million tax paid by Shell.
“We can tell Nigerians that this is the first time the
payment of the Income Tax/Education Tax by the NLNG was being disclosed by any
government, in addition to paying it into the Federation Account for sharing,
hence those who call it their ‘legitimate’ earnings should be asked why they
did not demand the sharing of such ‘legitimate’ earnings in the past.
“We can tell Nigerians that apart from the said US$1.6
billion NLNG payment for 2015, NLNG also paid US$1.4 billion as Income
Tax/Education Tax in May 2014, paid US$0.3 billion as Education tax to the
Federal Government in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and $1.2 billion in VAT and
With-holding Tax to the Federal Government since 2009. These payments are just
those made in the past six years alone, hence there were other payments before
then.
“In addition, dividend payments totalling US$4,728,136,946
were paid to the Federal Government between 2004 and 2009, out of which only US$127,851,348.19
was credited to the Federal Government’s Independent Account with JP Morgan,
leaving a balance of over $4 billion.
“The questions to ask therefore are why all the past
taxes and dividends were neither fully paid into the Federation Account nor
shared by the three tiers of government and what happened to the funds.”
The APC said the probe must be carried out in the
light of President Buhari’s directive that all funds due to the Federal
Government must be paid to the Federation Account as part of ways to plug
financial leakages.
The statement went on: “In an effort to restore
transparency to the system, it is important to let Nigerians know why all due
funds were not paid into the Federation Account in the past and what happened
to such funds.
“The party also said that as part of the
investigation, the PDP must be asked where it kept the $5.5 billion which it
said was the dividend paid to the Federal Government by the NLNG before the 29
May handover.
‘’Since, according to the PDP, President Goodluck
Jonathan asked that the money be ‘left for the incoming administration to
manage’, it is important for the party, therefore, to tell Nigerians in which
account the money was ‘saved’ because it is definitely not in the Federation
Account.”
Insisting that an opposition must not only be factual
and truthful but ‘eschew pandering to be credible’, the APC said: “Had the PDP
embraced these cardinal principles, it would not have, in the rush to belittle
the package that was approved for the states by President Buhari and to
discredit his administration, engaged in outright lies and selective
perception.
“While the PDP became fixated on the source of the
money shared by the states, it forgot that there were other measures in the
package that included a special intervention fund of between N250 billion and
N300 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as a soft loan available to
states to access for the purposes of paying backlog of salaries.
“The PDP also forgot the debt relief programme designed
to assist the states to restructure their commercial loans of N660 billion,
with a view to extending the life span of such loans and reducing the states’
debt-servicing expenditures.
“That way, the states are freed from their perennial
inability to pay workers’ salaries, and more funds are available to the various
governments to use for the benefit of the people.
“They have forgotten that the only time in the
country’s history that this kind of rescue package was made was also during the
tenure of Muhammadu Buhari as military Head of State.”
The APC advised those who are showboating and
distorting facts to tarry a while, as what they have seen was just a tip of the
iceberg in a long journey to clear the rot left behind by “the rudderless
administration of Dr. Jonathan”.
“The
revelations concerning the deep rot in the system that will come in the weeks
and months ahead will shock even the most ardent critics of the Buhari
Administration’s salvaging efforts,” the party said.
No PDP President ‘Ever Touched NLNG Dividends’
Meanwhile TheCable reports that the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said none of its successive led governments ever
tampered with the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) dividends in the last 10
years.
A statement signed by the PDP spokesman, Olisa Metuh,
on Sunday in Abuja said that the fund at the end of President Goodluck Jonathan
tenure had risen to a cumulative US$5.6 billion.
The party stated that its attention had been drawn to
the “misleading and outright falsehood” by the All Progressives
Congress (APC) on the issue.
“The truth is that the NLNG had been on a 10-year tax
haven until 2014.
“Within this period, successive governments, right
from President Olusegun Obasanjo, never shared nor tampered with the cumulative
dividends over the years.
“Whatever taxes paid from the NLNG go through the
Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) and recorded as part of the income of
the Federal Government.
“It is imperative to note that by the end of the
tenure of President Goodluck Jonathan, NLNG dividends had risen to a cumulative
US$5.6billion and not a single cent was ever taken from the funds,” it stated.
The
statement said although it was within the rights of the APC administration to
spend the funds in any way it might decide, it was, however, wrong for APC to
try to insinuate that the past PDP-led governments had hidden the fund. 
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