The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has generated a total sum of N673.7 billion in the first half of this year. Its Spokesman, Paul Osu, said in a statement that the Director of DPR, Mr Auwalu Sarki, disclosed this during the visit of the Federation Allocation Accounts Committee (FAAC) Post-mortem Sub-Committee to the department on Wednesday. The FAAC delegation was led by the Chairman of the committee, Mr Kabir Mashi. He said that DPR was a revenue collection agency for revenues accrueable to government from oil and gas industry operations and assured that the agency would surpass its revenue target for 2020.
According to him, DPR operates a cashless revenue system which enables all revenue remittances to be paid directly to the federation account in total compliance with the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy of government. He said DPR conducts comprehensive quarterly and annual reconciliations of revenue payments to ensure accurate and timely remittances to the federation account. Sarki stated that DPR was responsible for collection of oil and gas royalties which represented proportional value of oil and gas production and sales from oilfields, gas flare penalties imposed for gas flaring. He said the agency was also responsible for collection of concession rentals paid for grant of oil and gas acreages by exploration and production companies and miscellaneous oil revenue.
This consists of statutory application fees, licence and permit fees and penalties. According to him, DPR conducts comprehensive quarterly and annual reconciliations of revenue payments to ensure accurate and timely remittances to the federation account. Responding, Mashi commended DPR for putting in appropriate measures in ensuring timely and accurate collection of revenues for the federation. Mashi said their visit was to strengthen collaboration with revenue collection agencies of government to ensure seamless analysis of revenue inflows into the federation account. He encouraged DPR to continue its positive revenue collection drive and to initiate policies that would continue to stimulate the economy to significantly increase current oil and gas contribution of 10 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (NAN)
