NNPC owes N23bn to NESS, export levy

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said  it did not remit N23.4 billion Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme (NESS) levy, chargeable on crude oil and gas exports since 2008.
NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Mr. Maikanti Baru , said this at the one-day investigative public hearing on the Pre-Shipment Inspection of Export Activities in Nigeria at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.
The hearing was organized by the Senate Joint Committees of Finance; Trade and Investment; Gas; Petroleum Upstream; Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions; Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters; and Customs and Excise.
Baru, who was represented by the Managing Director, NNPC Capital, Mr. Godwin Okonkwo, however, blamed the budgetary appropriation constraints imposed on the NNPC by the National Assembly for the accumulation of the sum.
Baru disclosed that the National Assembly had always budgeted N20 million for NESS Fees, adding that NNPC lacked any legal right to remit any amount above the appropriated sum once it was exhausted.
Baru explained that the NNPC was normally charged 0.15 per cent Free On Board (FOB) value of export as NESS fees for the Corporation’s execution of export of crude oil and gas on behalf of the Federal Government.
He said, “NESS budget is appropriated in the yearly National budget. NNPC-National Petroleum Investment and Management Services, NAPIMS, administers the budget and payments under the scheme. Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD) provides the lifting profiles and the actual price to compute the FOB export value.”
The NNPC said NESS fees are payments due to Pre-shipment Inspection Agents and Monitoring and Evaluation Agents in respect of their supervision of crude oil and gas exports, culminating in generation of Clean Certificate of Inspections (CCI) to an exporter as permit to execute action.
According to the NNPC, as usual, at the end of each reconciliation, agreed NESS fees payable are signed off by stakeholders.