President Muhammadu Buhari has
directed the ministry of finance, led by Zainab Ahmed, to sell all recovered
and liability-free assets in six months.
A number of politicians and
former government officials will be affected by this because some assets have
been seized in the course of the war against corruption embarked on by the
Buhari administration.
Speaking on Tuesday while
briefing the house of representatives joint committee on finance,
appropriation, planning and economic development, Udoma Udo Udoma, the minister
of budget and national planning, said the federal government is determined to
improve its revenue generation in 2019.
“The Ministry of Finance, working
with all the relevant authorities, has been authorized to take action to
liquidate all recovered, unencumbered assets within six months,” he said.
“The Department of Petroleum
Resources has been directed to, within three months, complete the collection of
past-due oil license and royalty charges, including those due from Nigerian
Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) (a subsidiary of NNPC), which it had
agreed to pay since 2017.”
Udoma told the lawmakers that the
president has directed that work should be concluded on the deployment of the
National Trade Window to enhance customs collections efficiency from the
current 64% to up to 90% over the next few years.
He attributed the government’s
inability to meet its revenue target in 2018 to the non-implementation of some
one-off items.
According to Udoma, these items
include the N710 billion from Oil Joint Venture Asset restructuring and N320
billion from the revision of the Oil Production Sharing Contract
legislation/terms, which have now been rolled over to 2019.
Speaking on the production quota
agreed on by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the minister
explained that there is no quota set for condensates.
“Mr. President has directed the
NNPC to take all possible measures to achieve the targeted oil production of
2.3 million barrels per day.”
He explained that in allocating
funds in the 2019 budget proposals, priority was given to critical
infrastructure projects.
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