The Federal Government, Wednesday, set up a committee to harmonise oil and gas revenue and production data, government earnings from all sectors of the economy, among other critical data, across all the ministries, departments and agencies of government.
Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the committee, tagged the ‘Nigerian Petroleum Fiscal Consistency Network,’ Mr. Tim Okon, Technical Adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources on Petroleum Fiscal Strategy, said the committee is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that policy makers have access to consistent set of data to reach enlightened decision.
Okon said the petroleum fiscal consistency network is driven by three ministries, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.
He added that the team will work with a number of government agencies to ensure the collection and presentation of accurate fiscal data.
He said, “It will involve the different entities that are involved in collecting information or revenue as the case may be and make sure that there is a consistent basis for the data collected and presented.
“The agencies we are dealing with include collection agencies such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and various other entities.”
“The team will look at how consistently we gather information, analyse the information and how we present the result of the analyses to aid policy makers. That is the essence of the committee.
“It is part of the general reforms in the oil and gas sector. It is consistent with reforms that are going on; whether it is enhancing economic growth or just making sure that we make decisions based on analysis of information.”
