Senate facilitated generation of additional N320bn revenue in the last 1 year –Lawmaker 

The Senate has revealed that the ninth National Assembly helped generate an additional revenue of N320 billion into the Federation Account in the last one year.

Ajibola Basiru, Chairman Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs made the disclosure in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday.

The senator said federal lawmakers were able to achieve the feat by means of the legislative work they executed on the Deep Onshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract (Amendment) Act 2019 in order to repeal and replace Section 16 of the Act.

“A statutory mandate to review the Act was never complied with for decades and the country lost valuable revenue. Thus, the amendment passed by this Senate achieved four major milestones.

“First, it revised upwards the regime of royalty payable on crude produced in deep-water. Secondly, it deleted Section 16 of the Act which provided for the trigger for a review of the Act,” he said.

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The lawmaker noted that the amendment brought about Section 16(A), which authorises the Petroleum Minister to cause the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to order a review of Production Sharing Contracts once in eight years.

“It introduced Section 16(B), which provided for offences and penalties.

“The cumulative effect of the amendment is that the sum of N320bn has been unlocked, according to several reputable industry experts, and it goes without saying that the injection of such huge revenue into our economy will catalyse several positive outcomes,” Basiru said.

He assured that the ninth Senate would ensure prompt consideration and passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill once it is received from the executive.

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