FG made N225bn from oil royalties, taxes ' NEITI

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives has said it helped to raise N225bn for the Federal Government from taxes and royalties in the oil industry between 2004 and 2008.The Executive Secretary, NEITI, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, while addressing the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Intergovernmental Affairs in Abuja on Thursday, said the agency had, however, not been able to conduct an audit of the oil and solid minerals sector since 2008.She said in spite of its numerous hurdles, the agency had succeeded in blocking financial leakages in the two industries and was able to save $1bn for the Federal Government in 2004 alone.We were able to block all the poor institutional leakages between the technical and financial aspects of the industries. It helped us to recover, through our audit, $1bn in 2004 for the Federal Government and it was paid into the Consolidated Account of the Federation, she said.The Chairman of the committee, Senator Dahiru Kuta, said the 2012 budget might fail to meet the aspirations of Nigerians because of the delay in its presentation to the National Assembly.However, President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday wrote to the Senate and House of Representatives requesting to be granted audience to present the budget proposals to the joint session of the National Assembly.Kuta urged Nigerians to hold the Federal Government responsible should the budget fail. He noted that the late submission of the appropriation bill to the might frustrate the quick passage of the budget.By September 2011, the budget for 2012 is supposed to be in the National Assembly, but up till now, we have not been able to get it. And if it should come now, we are going to look at it till maybe January or February before the National Assembly will then pass it. How can the budget then work' he queried.
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