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| NNPC GMD. Dr. Maikanti Baru |
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has been blamed again for holding up the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting scheduled for Friday, as it failed to remit due revenue into the pool.
The meeting will now take place today.
One of the state Commissioners for Finance, who pleaded anonymity, told NAN that for the second time, the NNPC was late in remitting funds into the Federation Account.
“NNPC is the major cause of all these things. It has not brought in money just like last month.
“Last month, the state governors insisted that the NNPC must bring in money before it later brought out N30 billion from Excess Crude Account (ECA) before the last FAAC could hold.
”Again this month, the CBN and Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) said they have not received component statement from NNPC.
”’This indicates that NNPC had not paid money into the Federation Account. Without that money we have to wait till tomorrow for FAAC meeting to hold.
“If the component statement is sent from NNPC, it will take about six hours before the stakeholders can go through it” the commissioner said.
President Muhammadu Buhari last month urged all state governors to utilise the balance of 50 per cent Paris Club refund to settle unpaid salaries owed workers before Christmas.
To remove any hitches, he directed the CBN, Ministry of Finance, and the Budget Office of the Federation to work out how the outstanding fund would be paid before 2017 ends.
The payment began in December 2016 with the release of about N522.74 billion to all 36 states in the first tranche of the Paris Club refund.
The federal government later in July 2017, released N243.8 billion as second tranche.
The funds were released following protests by states against over deductions for external debt service between 1995 and 2002.
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