DPR Remits N673bn to Federation Account in Six Months

Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) yesterday said it remitted N673.72 billion to the federal government coffers in the first half of 2020.

The disclosure came against the backdrop of a recent query by the Senate accusing DPR of remitting N44.5 billion into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) out of the N2.4 trillion it generated in 2019.

DPR had told the Senate that it generated a total of N2.4 trillion in 2019, but N44.5 billion was remitted, a development that angered senators.

It added that N88 billion was removed as four per cent collection fee out of which N5.72 billion was also remitted, while the balance was used for overhead.

However, in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, DPR Director, Mr. Sarki Auwalu, who spoke during a visit of the Federation Allocation Accounts Committee (FAAC) Postmortem Sub-committee, promised to surpass its revenue target for 2020.

He explained that the organisation is a revenue-collection agency for revenues accruable to government from oil and gas industry operations, including oil and gas royalties which represent proportional value of oil and gas production and sales from oilfields.

Auwalu stated that DPR's remittances to government also come from the collection of gas flare penalties imposed for gas flaring, concession rentals paid for the grant of oil and gas acreages by exploration as well as production companies and miscellaneous oil revenue, which consists of statutory application fees, licence and permit fees and penalties.

He said the agency operates a cashless revenue system, which enables all revenue remittances to be paid directly to the Federation Account in compliance with the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy.

According to him, DPR also conducts comprehensive quarterly and annual reconciliations of revenue payments to ensure accurate and timely remittances to the Federation Account.

Chairman of the subcommittee, who led the delegation from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), Mr. Kabir Mashi, said the visit was aimed at strengthening collaboration with revenue collection agencies to ensure seamless analysis of revenue inflows into the Federation Account.

He urged DPR to initiate policies that would continue to stimulate the economy so that oil and gas current contribution of 10 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could increase.