The House of Representatives ad hoc committee on the recovery of outstanding N2.6 trillion debts owed to the federal government by oil and gas companies has demanded evidence of taxes, royalties, and levies.

Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, who chaired the 18-member committee investigating the matter, made the demand on Wednesday in Abuja.

She called on the companies to make the appropriate submission and provide evidence of payments and outstanding from 2019 to date.

Mrs Onyejeocha said that failure to do this, the committee would consider other legislative approaches to enforce full compliance of its directives by the invited companies and the government agencies.

She urged the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to furnish the payment records on a field basis from 2019 till date and all outstanding as of March 12.

She said that NUPRC was also to provide detailed information on crude oil production and lifting, gas production and utilisation and gas flare, including payment from 2019 till date.

Mrs Onyejeocha also asked the NNPC to provide details of $440 million waived to Nigeria Petroleum Development Companies and profile outstanding debt owed to NUPRC, FIRS and other government revenue collecting agencies.

She said it needed clarification on the deduction made on remittances to the federation account from domestic crude sales proceeds.

She said that a detailed breakdown of crude and product losses pipeline breakpoint and volume including third-party government agency validation certification should be provided.

Mrs Onyejeocha called on FIRS to provide details of payment and outstanding tax obligation as of March 16, including tax waiver given to oil and gas companies from 2019 to date.

She said that the Central Bank of Nigeria should also provide the bank statements of FIRS, NNPC, NUPRC for confirmation of receipts of outstanding liabilities from 2019 to date.

She said that the investigative hearing was not for the sake of it, adding that the committee was serious, saying, “we are not too happy that we can’t make use of resources available to us.”

The investigative hearing is based on the National Extractive Industries Extractive Initiative (NEITI) report that 77 Oil and Gas companies operating in Nigeria owe the Federal Government over N2.6 trillion.

(NAN)