NASS uncover N26bn tax liability by NNPC subsidiary

This discovery came to light at the ongoing probe by the House ad hoc committee on the oil swap contracts entered into by the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) on behalf of the NNPC and the federal government.

The House of Representatives Committee investigating the implementation of the government’s oil swap policy, on Wednesday, uncovered a whooping N26 billion tax liability owed the Federal Government by Duke Oil Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

This discovery came to light at the ongoing probe by the House ad hoc committee on the oil swap contracts entered into by the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) on behalf of the NNPC and the federal government.

Testifying before the ad hoc committee, officials of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) informed committee members that whereas Duke Oil was registered in Panama in 1989 and later incorporated in Nigeria in 2012, as Duke Oil Incorporated, the company had failed to pay any form of tax to the government since it commenced operations and was, therefore, owing N26 billion as unpaid taxes.

FIRS Co-ordinating Director (Domestic Taxes Group), Babatunde Ajayi, who made the disclosure said that Duke Oil Incorporated, had not filed any tax returns from the $39 million oil transactions it had executed on behalf of the government, including those it sub-contracted to other oil trading firms.

Also, he said another firm, Trafigura Nigeria Limited which had lifted 12 million metric tonnes of crude oil, under the swap programme, had failed to file any tax returns with the tax agency despite engaging in oil transactions in Nigeria for years.

However, the representative of Trafigura, James Juslin declared that the company had no tax obligations to Nigeria because it was an international company.